Foreigner
by BlackFrostWarrior
Summary: Robin takes an accidental cross-universe jaunt and finds himself in the middle of a robot war. No slash or pairing. Can it still be AU when it takes place in more than one universe?.
1. Chapter 1 - Shoulda Stayed in Bed

_**A/N - A **_**Young Justice/Transformers: Prime cross over. Shoot me now :P**

_**Set after the end of season one of **_**Young Justice**_**, somewhere in the middle of season one of **_**Prime**_**.**_

_**This story is the product of illness, lack of sleep, extreme allergies and illness again, followed by excitement over Christmas. Yes, yes I do know it has flaws. I can see them, but feel free to point them out if it will make you feel better. I don't mind. I wrote this exclusively for my own entertainment and now post it for yours. If it will amuse you to criticize it, feel free to do so.**_

_**I feel the K+ rating is quite sufficient, but let me know if you think otherwise and I'll change it to T.**_

* * *

_Some days, it's really best if you don't get out of bed._

This was exactly the thought that was running through Robin's head as he plummeted towards a twisting abyss whose blue flame seemed to be reaching out to pull him in, as if gravity weren't already doing that.

It was not a thought Robin had frequently, in spite of his lifestyle choices. You might think that this thought would cross his mind every time he was getting beaten up by a villain, or that it would scamper through the dark recesses of his subconscious whenever he was faced with a problem he couldn't figure out how to solve. He had every right to think this particular thought at least once a night. But he didn't.

He wasn't one of those people who spent a great deal of time considering what he might have done to prevent whatever situation he found himself in. No, he reserved his brain power for figuring out how to resolve said situation in a satisfactory manner (as in, not getting killed). There were times, many in fact, where he stopped to think about the possible consequences of his actions before he actually did anything. But once it was done, he didn't generally reflect on it all that much. He found that it was really best that way. If he thought about the past too much, he would be weighed down by guilt, grief and probably some other words that started with G as well.

And so it rather startled him that he was thinking that he shouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning.

Given the circumstances, it shouldn't have been surprising. All told, it was the only decision he could have made which might have averted his current plight.

If he hadn't gotten out of bed, he wouldn't have gone to Mount Justice, and if he hadn't gone there, he wouldn't have been with the Team when they were given a mission to check into some unsettling activity in the nearby city of Blüdhaven. If he hadn't gone to Blüdhaven with the others, he wouldn't have encounter a masked criminal and his little crowd of minions. And, if that hadn't happened, one of them wouldn't have managed to knock him off the roof of the building they were fighting on and then he wouldn't be falling towards the blue-black abyss.

Falling in and of itself wouldn't be so bad. Robin had a grappling hook designed pretty much specifically for this kind of crisis. Unfortunately, since he had started falling, he and the grappling hook had stopped being on speaking terms, presumably because of some sort of interference from the abyss.

And abyss was really the only term for it.

Even without knowing anything about it, Robin could sense the enormity of the bottomless thing. The twisting darkness beyond its glowing orifice was best described as interminable.

The merest seconds passed between the time of Robin's fall and his abduction into the abyss. Long enough only for the rest of the Team to fight their way over, having received a telepathic impression of Robin's moment of panic as he fell because of the link between them courtesy of Miss Martian.

Robin disappeared into the abyss, and it winked out, as if it were for him and him alone that it had opened in the first place. Darkness was to follow his disappearance, long and terrible darkness.

* * *

Spinning and rolling head over heels, Robin began to think this must be what it's like to be in a tumble dryer. It had not escaped his notice that he was still alive, nor did that come as any particular shock to him. He had known almost since birth that it wasn't the fall that would kill you, it was the sudden stop at the end if there was no one to catch you on the way down.

Other than the awareness that he was falling, Robin got little impression that there was any gravity to be had. Blanketed in absolute darkness, there were no visual signs, and he could neither hear nor feel wind blowing past. Like he was somehow in an airless chamber, except that he could still breath. Or at least, that's what he thought. Until he realized that he hadn't taken any breath since this started.

It felt like he'd been falling forever, but his body's lack of demand for additional oxygen gave him the distinct feeling that it hadn't been more than a few seconds and his perception of time was just terribly confused by the darkness and silence.

Suddenly, he saw in the distance a bright light, not unlike the blue flames which had encircled the abyss. Was this the other end, perhaps?. He didn't have time to fully absorb the reality of the light, or its potential implications before he was suddenly spat out and subject to normal conditions of light, wind and, more importantly, gravity.

Having fallen so long without any other options available, it took Robin's mind a second to engage. A second proved too long as he hit the up-rushing ground hard with his shoulder. He did roll, reducing the impact, but by now he was so thoroughly turned around that he was too dizzy to get up.

Blinking at the swirling expanse of pale blue and white, Robin was perhaps more confused than he should have been. It had been cloudy, and so early in the morning that the sun wasn't even up. Yet here, he recognized the blue sky and white clouds of mid-afternoon on a sunny day.

There was a rumbling, accompanied by a low vibration. Instinct bade Robin leap to his feet and drop into a defensive crouch, which he did. A large silver metal thing with two prongs sticking out of the front greeted him. Almost at once, he realized that this was but a very small part of a very big thing.

Casting his gaze upward, Robin took in the appearance of the purple, black and silver robot. It was humanoid, but apparently faceless, in addition to being several building stories tall. It leaned down towards him, throwing a massive shadow before it, sharply pointed black fingers reaching for Robin.

"Hey!," Robin hissed, rolling away from the outstretched hand.

Familiar with aliens and strange technology, Robin knew that he might not actually be under attack, that maybe the robot was just curious, but he wasn't about to make that assumption. Assume all strangers are enemies. He'd learned that the hard way. Villain until proven innocent was the only way to survive in a potential combat situation.

Robin's dodge unfortunately caused him to collide with the toe of another robot who, with the barest shifting of its weight, knocked the wind out of him. It reached down and plucked him off the ground by the cape. Uneasily, Robin watched the ground retreat until he was at face level with the faceless robot.

"Are you one of the Autobot's pets?," the robot's computerized voice inquired in a monotone.

"A what of the who?,"

At this point, he realized that he had been dropped into the middle of a debatably small crowd of the robots, who clustered around apparently to gawk at the strange specimen which had been catapulted out of the abyss. Presumably it was their doing, but this was not the expected result.

"It does not match any description of known Autobot associates," rumbled one of the robots in an off-hand sort of way, as if this hardly mattered.

_What the heck is an Autobot?._ Robin wondered, but didn't bother asking.

"It doesn't matter," this voice was distinctly different from the others, sharp and almost whiningly authoritative "kill it anyway,"

The owner of the voice was a different color from the others, possessed a face as well as missiles mounted on its forearms. Sly glowing red eyes peered at Robin from a distance, sharply curious yet unwilling to take any risks to find out what Robin was or where he'd come from.

A treacherous coward to the core. Robin would know the face of one anywhere, on anything, even something so bizarre as this. Robots were not unknown to Robin, he had encountered many. Some were good, some were evil, but seldom were they so monstrously huge.

The leader's manner and command, in addition to the other robots' utter lack of hesitation, confirmed in Robin's mind that these were the evil variety of robot. However, he was not so helpless as they must have imagined him to be.

Cutting free of his cape, Robin dropped back to the ground, landing heavily and rolling. He got to his feet swiftly and set to running. He had no interest in a confrontation at the moment. He wanted to know where he was, and to find a way back home more than to actually fight these Goliaths of the robot world. Strangely, it occurred to him that this really wasn't a robot world.

It looked every bit earth-like, right down to scattered plants and mineral rocks he could actually identify. But he felt like he would know if there were any giant robots tramping around on Earth. It seemed like the Team, or at the very least the Justice League, would have noticed.

A large boulder which Robin had been planning to use as cover suddenly exploded in a brilliant flash of blue-white light, and broken shards of it rained down on him. He had suspected that the other robots were armed, but had hoped he was wrong.

Turning, he took in the open landscape. He couldn't make it to cover without getting shot. The robots still stood in their cluster, but the one who had fired now advanced a few paces. It raised its weapon and the end began to hum and glow.

Cringing, Robin did his best to prepare himself for oblivion. It was a concept he was long familiar with and had lost his fear of years ago. It was a reality that every superhero faced.

But before the robot could fire, there was a mechanical roar. It echoed from the surrounding cliffs. The robots looked about nervously. Robin didn't know what to expect. The thing he least expected was the thing that happened. At first, there was no sign of what had made the noise. But the robots remained uneasy. A moment later, their concern proved valid.

From the high cliff behind Robin there launched a sleek sports car. Its engine seemed to snarl as gravity sent it plunging directly for the robot which had stepped forward. Smashing the robot full in the chest, the bright yellow and black car spun its wheels, seeking traction while still in the air.

The robot fell, a terrible groaning fall, like that of an ancient redwood, and the ground shook at its impact. The yellow car roared forward, driving over the robot's face. Screeching, it did a fierce one-eighty and plunged towards the rest of the robots, who opened fire on it. And then, it jumped. There was no rock, no ramp. It just... jumped.

Into the air, it twisted sideways, spiraling through the crowd of robots and knocking another one or two down. As it came towards the ground, there was the grinding of metal gears, the unmistakable noise of machinery at work, a transformation in progress.

By the time it hit the ground, the car had become a robot. At this point, Robin was not surprised. His day had boarded the crazy train so long ago that nothing short of flying purple miniature elves with BB guns would have surprised him.

This robot too was armed and it did not hesitate to fire on the faceless purple robots. This newcomer had a face, with expressive round blue and black eyes. In the eyes, Robin could see the courage of a warrior, and a strange concern for his safety that was both unexpected and welcome.

The yellow robot made a noise somewhere between a vacuum cleaner and an insect's buzz. It was a sound which meant nothing to Robin, but it didn't appear to be addressed to him.

"Forget the human, get the Autobot!," screeched the leader of the purple robots.

The Autobot made another series of noises, these sounding urgent and commanding. They were clearly addressed to Robin, but he couldn't make heads or tails of them.

Though they were armed with guns, it was evidently preferable to tear the Autobot limb from limb. The robots closed on it, even as it backed away, keeping itself between them and Robin. The Autobot made a final appeal to Robin, but he couldn't understand it.

The robots leaped on the Autobot, grabbing at it. It threw the first one into several others, but was soon weighted down by so many robot bodies, rendering it virtually helpless. Robin knew he could make his escape while the robots were distracted, but he had never been one to abandon an ally, even one he had just met. And so, rather than fleeing, he entered the fray.

* * *

_**A/N: I will not be posting tomorrow, December 25th, but chapter two should be up the day after Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody!.**_


	2. Chapter 2 - Meet the Autobots

_**A/N: You'll notice that I am not making use of Robin's affinity for word creation. This is because I feel that I would botch it up so badly that it would be physically painful to read. Also note that it had been months since I viewed either series at the time of this writing.**_

* * *

Robin leaped up onto the metal skin of one of the purple robots. The metal plates made excellent hand holds and he soon reached the robot's shoulder. It was barely aware of him, consumed by what it was doing. He had anticipated this, indeed he had counted on it.

He pulled out an explosive and dropped it beneath the robot's plated skin. He didn't pause to see what effect it would have, leaping immediately to another robot and planting an explosive on it in the same way. As he lunged onto the third, the first one's back exploded.

Metal shards flew violently from its back and the robot staggered, flaming from the inside. It made a sound akin to a scream, thrashing and clawing futilely at itself, unable to reach its flaming backside. After several moments, it collapsed to the ground, twitching.

Robin had enough experience with robots to know that lobbing grenades was a futile exercise. But he had been hoping that sticking an explosive under the robot's skin would at least be somewhat like sticking an ice cube down someone's shirt. He hadn't expected to actually kill the robot, and maybe he hadn't. But he did succeed in distracting it and causing chaos among the others as the second one burst into flames.

No sooner had Robin planted the third explosive than the horde turned on him. The robot he was on snatched at him, but he was between its shoulder blades, clinging on like a monkey. This was a bad place to be, as this location would shortly be on fire.

The other robots would undoubtedly attack him if he tried to hop to them, so there was only one choice. He jumped onto the Autobot, landing on a wing-like protrusion on its right shoulder. It let out a startled buzz. Then, in a whir of motor noises, it transformed back into a car and Robin realized what he'd been holding onto had been a door.

He found himself in the passenger seat of the car, which roared away from the battlefield as quickly as it seemed capable of. The other robots gave chase, also transforming into cars. Robin looked out the back window at them, and saw that they were well able to keep pace.

The Autobot had taken damage which was uncomfortably apparent as it lurched violently from time to time. Bright blue laser flashes shot by the windows, but the Autobot was a talented dodger and swerved side to side fluidly, avoiding each potentially deadly beam.

The car made a clicking sound, then buzzed urgently. At first, Robin thought it was once again trying to communicate with him, but then he realized that it was speaking through a radio. A voice replied, one clearly metallic, but not quite so flat as the voices of the purple robots.

"Where are you, Bumblebee?," the voice asked.

A series of buzzes and chirps followed. Robin listened closely, detecting a clear pattern to the at first meaningless sounding noises. He was fluent in a number of languages and excelled at pattern recognition. If this was indeed a language, he figured he could learn it, given enough time. He didn't want to be here that long but, if he was, he might as well start learning now.

"Arcee and Bulkhead will ground bridge to your coordinates,"

The acknowledging burr sounded like a request that they hurry.

A moment later, a shimmering vortex opened on the road ahead. A slim, feminine blue robot and an army green behemoth who somehow resembled a tank emerged. The vortex spun out and disappeared. The Autobot swerved around them as they assumed a fighting stance.

It swung sideways and began to transform, slowly enough that Robin could reposition himself. It was clear that the Autobot wanted him to get out and hide behind some nearby rocks, but instead he climbed up onto its shoulder. There was no time for argument.

"Who's your friend?," the female robot asked.

It was at this point that Robin decided he should stop thinking of the robots as 'it'. Clearly, there were male and female varieties. This was a thought which had not occurred to him until now, seeing as he was somewhat preoccupied.

The yellow robot made some kind of reply, which roughly sounded like 'I'll explain later'.

Holding to the Autobot's shoulder with one hand, Robin pulled out two explosive birdarangs. The advancing horde seemed smaller than before, and did not include the coward leader. They transformed on approach, looking less confident than before. Yet Robin knew 'his' side was still outnumbered.

"Hold still," he instructed the Autobot, hoping it would deign to listen.

Taking careful aim, he threw the two birdarangs. One lodged in a robot's forearm, the other it its mark between the shield skin plates of another. Both made 'chunk' noises that drew attention. The stricken robots looked down curiously at their new ornaments. One did not have long to contemplate as the explosion in his chest plate took him down and left him smoking on the ground. The other was startled by the explosion, but the birdarang had not penetrated its shielding, so it was only surprised, but mostly unhurt. Robin drew two more birdarangs and waited.

His play proved successful. The robots turned tail and ran, unwilling to fight three Autobots plus an exceptionally capable human enemy. The robots couldn't know it, but those were the last of his explosives. He had just bluffed that he was as dangerous as they were, though he was now virtually helpless. As the robots retreated, he sighed heavily and patted the yellow robot's shoulder.

"Thanks," he breathed.

The robot, Bumblebee he now recalled, made something that sounded like an off-hand remark.

"I guess we can't just leave you here," the female robot said "seeing as the Decepticons were dead-set on frying you,"

"Decepta... what now?,"

"Decepticons," the heavy-set robot said "they're basically evil and want to rule the galaxy. It's a good thing Bee was on patrol around here, or you'd be history,"

"Decepticons bad, Autobots good. Good to know," Robin replied.

Bumblebee made a flurry of buzzing noises, which seemed to startle his companions.

"Not so helpless, huh?," Arcee said, raising an eyebrow.

Were they still eyebrows if they were on robots?.

"Helpless enough," Robin said, but did not elaborate.

"Well, come on, you're coming back to base with us," Arcee told him.

"I'd rather go home, but as that doesn't seem to be in the cards, sure, I'll tag along with you guys," Robin replied "you seem cool,"

After the disorienting chaos of the abyss, the ground bridge proved to be a walk in the park for Robin. On the other side, his quick eyes took in every detail of the Autobot base. He let out an impressed whistle at the size of the place. It reminded him of Mount Justice.

"Abandoned military base?," he guessed "nice,"

He was still perched on Bumblebee's shoulder and felt disinclined to climb down to the ground where he might get stepped on. He enjoyed heights. You could see everything from up high, and had any number of options on where to go and how to get there. The ground was a place you really didn't want to be if you wanted freedom of movement.

"What's this?. Another one?," an orange and white Autobot groused "as if we don't have enough human problems as it is," he threw up his hands with an annoyed grunt.

"We didn't have much choice," the she-bot explained "the cons wanted him dead, we couldn't just leave him out in the middle of the desert to fend for himself, now could we?,"

The orange robot, who somehow sounded much older than the others, made an irritated noise which didn't qualify as an actual word, yet perfectly described his feelings on the subject.

A heavy clunking sound announced the arrival of yet another robot. Robin whirled to face this new bot, forgetting for a moment that he was in a base which should be safe. He pulled out a pair of birdarangs, knowing they were virtually useless, but still better than nothing.

"Whoa, easy, he's on our side," the green robot said, holding up an enormous hand.

He didn't know Robin was unarmed, knew only what he had seen, and that was that this tiny human somehow had the ability to disable and possibly even kill a robot.

"Sorry," Robin said, putting his weapons away reluctantly "I'm a little jumpy,"

"Understandable," the tall Autobot who had just arrived said "considering your ordeal,"

"Ordeal?," Robin scoffed "you think being attacked by robots is an ordeal?. That's totally normal for me. Well... very nearly normal anyway. Semi-normal?... hmm... yeah, go with that,"

The Autobots exchanged wary glances, which suggested that something he'd said brought to mind an enemy they felt he resembled somehow.

"Even being sling-shot around the world doesn't come as much of a surprise," Robin went on, feigning obliviousness to the concerned looks "however, being sucked into a fiery abyss into another dimension... or whatever this is... actually... no... that's pretty normal too. But not usually all in one day. So... who are you guys?. I'm Robin, by the way,"

As he had been talking, he'd picked up speed and begun to fidget, and actually pace around on Bumblebee's shoulders, looking curiously around, taking in the finer details of his environment as he talked, trying to relieve some of the nervous energy that seemed to be oozing out of him.

"Ooh, shiny," he abruptly hopped from Bumblebee and onto a steel platform.

He stood before an oversized computer which reminded him of the one back home.

"Don't touch that!," the orange and white Autobot objected "that's very sensitive equipment, not a child's plaything,"

"Relax," Robin tossed over his shoulder "I'm just looking. Besides, I've got a way with computers,"

He declined to mention that he had received extensive training in hacking, figuring that was information they didn't need. Besides, it would probably not endear him to the Autobots if they knew that he had already figured out how to wipe out their entire system just by looking at it.

"We," the tall Autobot said, answering Robin's earlier question "are Autobots,"

"So I gathered," Robin replied "I was looking for something like names, designations, rank and serial number if you prefer, whatever. I already know he's Bumblebee," Robin jabbed a finger towards the yellow Autobot "and a wild guess says that the big green is Bulkhead which makes the blue lady over there Arcee. And you would be?,"

"I am Optimus Prime, and this is Ratchet," amazingly, the tallest of the Autobots did not seem in any way ruffled or off put by Robin's near-frantic energy and hyperactive mouth.

"Do you have any idea why the Decepticons were after you?," Ratchet asked, sounding somewhat impatient with the proceedings.

Robin turned away from the computer, shrugged and then hopped up onto the railing around the platform and began to walk along it. It gave him something to concentrate on other than his uncomfortable predicament and instinctive distrust of the Autobots.

They had rescued him, yes. So far they were friendly enough, but he couldn't help but feel uneasy. They were strangers to him, this whole place was strange to him, so close to comfortable normality that he could almost taste it, yet unappealing in its difference from his home.

He didn't have to try to radio home to know he was too far for them to answer. This might be Earth, but it wasn't his Earth. It was somewhere bizarre and different and that made him decidedly uncomfortable.

"I have no idea," he elaborated when the Autobots seemed to be waiting for something more "one minute I'm in Bludhaven, fighting the standard evil bad guy, next thing I know I'm falling, sucked into some sort of wacky-time-space field and then BAM!," he jumped down off the railing onto another platform "some faceless tin-plated morons want to use me as a stress ball,"

He paced, then flipped onto another railing and began to walk up and down it.

"And before you get all offended, I meant the Decepticons, not you guys. You seem cool, and in no way moronic," Robin couldn't tell what the Autobots were thinking, though their eyes and faces were expressive, they were carefully schooling their looks to appear bland.

"School's almost out," Arcee said, apparently at random.

It seemed to mean something to the rest of the group as they visibly reacted, looking from one to another. They looked to Robin, and a few cast glances at Bumblebee. Robin picked up on it. Bumblebee was supposed to be somewhere and they were concerned about how Robin might react to that, having been rescued by the yellow Autobot, they seemed to realize he might feel safer with his rescuer than the others.

"Hey, don't worry about me," Robin said, then assured them "I have got absolutely nothing better to do than hang around here. At least, not right now,"

He fully intended to find his way home. But that would mean going back to where he started, where the Decepticons seemed to be hanging around. And that was something he didn't feel up to quite yet. This seemed as safe a place as any to rest, safer than most even.

To emphasize his point, he flipped over to a platform with a sofa and plunked himself down on it. He had noticed it earlier, and absorbed its probable meaning at first glance. Maybe there were no people here now, but there must be sometimes because the Autobots clearly had no use for such a tiny object, even if they did sit down sometimes, which didn't appear to be the case from the appearance of the room, which was somewhat lacking in the Autobot-sized furniture department.

Optimus Prime nodded to Bumblebee, who transformed into a car and drove off, followed by Bulkhead and Arcee, who turned into an SUV and motorcycle respectively.


	3. Chapter 3 - Offensive Creature

Jack, Miko and Raff were surprised, to say the least, when they saw the guest of the Autobots. Robin was once more on the platform railings, but this time he was perching, and looked down at the three children as if they were more alien to him than the Autobots.

They, especially Jack, could tell at a glance that he was very different from them. It wasn't just his weird outfit and black mask. The way he sat on the railing, looking down at them out of piercing eyes was unsettling. His body was wiry, but strongly muscled. Now and then he would twitch or shift, each movement quick and bird-like, with a determined efficiency and clear purpose to it that seemed almost beyond human. Jack guessed him to be about twelve, though he was taller than Raff, but there was a darkness in his eyes, a depth to them that made him seem almost ancient, as old as one of the Autobots. Even older, perhaps.

"These are our human allies," Optimus said to break the ice, addressing the stranger in their midst "Jack, Miko and Rafael. And this," he said turning his head to speak to those he had just named "is Robin,"

"Hi," Robin raised a hand to wave briefly.

A hop, flip and a jump brought him down to Jack and the others' level. Evidently, he didn't believe in stairs. Robin regarded them with a clear mixture of curiosity and suspicion, a look Jack was sure he was reflecting back. They were used to the Autobots being their secret, which they begrudgingly shared with Agent Fowler. And Robin was a stranger creature than any new Autobot would have been.

"Nice hair," Robin said, speaking to Raff "it's like a little fireball or a mountain or something,"

"Um... thanks," Raff replied, nervously adjusting his glasses.

"So do you guys live here?," Robin asked nobody in particular.

"No," Jack spoke for them "we just spend our days here,"

"It's like our club house," Miko said, adding icily "our _secret_ club house,"

"Hey, secrets are one thing I do know how to keep," Robin told her, grinning somewhat impishly.

"So what's your story anyway?," Miko demanded, unwilling to be pacified.

"Falling, shiny light, abyss, time and space, splat, Decepticons, firefight, car chase, ground bridge," Robin said succinctly "also, Autobots. Especially this guy," he gestured to Bumblebee.

Bumblebee made some kind of reply and gestured to Robin.

"Really?," Raff's eyes widened and he looked at Robin with something like awe.

"What?. What'd he say?," Miko asked.

"So I blew up a few Decepticons, what's the big deal?," Robin wanted to know.

Miko opened her mouth to retort.

"Hang on, you can understand Bumblebee too?," Raff asked, before Miko could get a word in edgewise.

"Not exactly," Robin said "more of a guessing game really. Like verbal pictionary, or charades... or something along those lines. Context helps,"

Jack and Miko exchanged glances that suggested they were jealous of that. When it was just Raff and the bots which could understand Bee, that made it something special. But when any random kid in a mask and Circus clothes could figure it out... well that just made them feel somehow inadequate.

"Hey, I know... um...," Robin paused and looked towards the ceiling "maybe eight or nine languages. If you count the ones I can get through a conversations with, that would make it fifteen... I think... no wait, make it sixteen. And I know computer code when I hear it,"

This information made little impression on the bots, but the humans were impressed.

"And I thought I was multilingual," Miko commented, evidently beginning to warm to their new acquaintance.

"The big deal," Jack said, drawing the conversation back to the Decepticon battle "is that most humans don't stand a chance against Decepticons. The best the military has to offer doesn't even make a dent,"

"Mine wouldn't either if I was attacking at the surface," Robin explained "but under all that metal plating, they're really pretty vulnerable. And not fire-proof,"

"Just how close did you get to those Cons anyway?," Miko wanted to know.

"Close enough to lose my cape," Robin said, a somewhat sorrowful look crossing his face "I liked that cape," then he shrugged "but there are always other capes. Assuming I can get back home,"

"Where is home?," Raff asked.

"In relation to here?. No idea," Robin admitted, beginning to pace "all I know for sure is this is not my Earth. Not sure how I know that, but I just do. So... some kind of alternate reality,"

"Why would the Cons be trying to access another reality?," Miko asked, looking up at the bots.

The Autobots had no answer for this question, but it was a serious one.

"I don't think they were expecting me to fall through," Robin supplied "but I do think they were looking for something," he looked thoughtful for a moment "there's plenty of powerful stuff in my universe, but... nothing comes to mind that screams 'of interest to evil robots from an alternate reality',"

"It's possible that accessing your reality was not what the Decepticons were trying to do," Ratchet commented "your arrival may have been a total accident,"

"Certainly was on my end,"

After saying this, Robin hopped onto the stair railing, climbed it, and then perched, apparently quite comfortably, on the platform railing. Being about eye level with the bots seemed to relax him somewhat, but he still fidgeted like a hyperactive six-year-old.

"It seems the only way to discover Starscream's intent is to go and see for ourselves," Optimus said, sounding somewhat weary at the thought.

"Count me in," Robin piped up eagerly.

"I will not purposefully endanger humans lives," Optimus told him.

"And I will not sit around doing nothing when I could be finding my way home," Robin spat, a flash of rage lighting his dark eyes.

This slight hint of his ferocity made the other humans cringe slightly. In his eyes was more challenge than Miko or even Agent Fowler dared show the Autobot leader. It was clear to all that he would be more than willing to fight Optimus hand-to-hand if he had to.

Optimus looked almost angry at this, and as though he would order one of the bots to prevent Robin from coming along. But then his look softened and he seemed to sigh. Perhaps he realized that Robin was not like the humans of this world. He had more than just bravery, he had skill to back it up.

Robin was a soldier of sorts, and though his arrival might have been an accident, his survival had been no such thing. It was even questionable whether he would actually have been killed had Bumblebee not intervened. In the end, it sounded like Robin had rescued the Autobots, rather than the other way round.

"Very well," Optimus said.

"If he's going, we are too," Miko insisted.

"No," Optimus said flatly "Robin is a warrior, and though you are brave, you are not,"

"Well that's going to endear me to the resident crowd," Robin muttered to himself, but went ignored.

"We've faced the Cons before," Miko argued "We can handle anything bird-brain here can,"

Before Optimus could reply, Robin dove headfirst off the railing, tackling Miko roughly. Though she had been facing him and had even seen him coming, there was only time for her to scream. In the space of a heartbeat, Robin had pinned her to the floor and drawn the sharp blade of his birdarang to her throat. Their eyes locked, Robin's cold and Miko's frightened. For a breathless second, everyone stood frozen, too startled to figure out how to react. Then Robin's eyes softened and he smiled a cheeky smile. He stood, sheathed his blade and held out a hand to help Miko up, which she brushed away, dusting herself off indignantly.

"I could have dodged that, if I were in your position," Robin told her "that was me taking it easy,"

"I believe you have made your point," Optimus' voice was hard, expressing his disapproval without having to verbalize it.

Miko, for once, had nothing to say. She was too busy rubbing her throat as though surprised that it was still intact. Little did she know that her life had never been in danger. Robin's every move was practiced and flowed easily for him. And, more importantly, he was not a killer, had been trained to disable, maim only when necessary and avoid killing if at all possible.

* * *

It was clear to Robin that he had upset the Autobots, and he knew exactly what it was that he'd done. His only excuse was that he was feeling rather stressed at the moment and found Miko especially irritating. Actually, the additional excuse was that he didn't want to have to save anyone while he was trying to get off this rock and back to his _own_ rock.

Still, he felt a bit sorry about his outburst, and didn't want to leave on bad terms with the Autobots. So once they were on the road, well away from the base, he did something that didn't come particularly easily to him. He apologized.

"I'm sorry," he said "I lost my head. It's been a rough day. But I wouldn't have hurt her,"

"I understand your motivations," Optimus replied "but cannot condone your actions,"

"They don't need condoning," Robin retorted irritably "you think I would apologize if I thought I was in the right?,"

Bumblebee said something or the other, sounding vaguely annoyed himself.

"Like you never lose your temper," Robin said, able to guess what Bee was trying to say.

"We're soldiers," Arcee put in "we are trained to have self-control,"

"So am I," Robin replied "and I was trained by the best,"

He knew that one or more of the Autobots might be inclined to argue this point, but he wasn't prepared to renounce it or defend it. He'd made the statement and, so far as he was concerned, that was the end of it. It was the same thing most former sidekicks had to say about their mentors. And most of them were right because the fact of the matter was that their mentor was either the best at what they did or at least equal to someone else who also did it. Superheroes who weren't the best at whatever they did tended to have extraordinarily short lifespans.

They lapsed into silence. Robin, who was riding with Bumblebee, looked out the window. Though he had more than once traveled across the globe, sometimes in quite exotic fashions, it was still slightly disconcerting to see that the sun was going down when he felt as if it should be coming up.

If this was an alternate Earth, was it on the opposite side from that which he'd been on in the other universe?. Or had he traveled time as well as space?. He supposed it didn't matter, and let the thought drop at that. Robin, like a great many people, had frequent thoughts which were of no consequence, but he was one of the very few who almost immediately dismissed such notions rather than spending any great deal of time considering them.

Another train of thought, one which he believed considerably more relevant, brought him to the uncomfortable issue of his armament. Without explosives, he was unsure of how he would actually go about defending himself. But he had guessed that the Autobots wouldn't be keen to wait around for him to build himself some explosives, and he wasn't yet willing to reveal how utterly helpless he now was.

It was a bridge he would have to cross when he reached it, and that time was fast approaching.

As they neared where Robin had initially been attacked, the Autobots slowed, then drew to a stop. That was Robin's cue to get out. Though he generally preferred heights, in this situation he recognized that he would be less visible on the ground and also free to do as he would, unlike if he were perched on one of the Autobots, who would probably hang back in an annoying attempt to shield him from harm.

Robin was used to having to prove himself. Beginning with Batman and going on from there, everyone was always underestimating him, taking in his age, small size and lack of special powers and assuming that he was just some dumb kid. He really couldn't blame the Autobots for thinking that, as they seemed to regard the majority of humanity as helpless.

The Autobots approached the area with caution, though Robin knew they were expecting to fight. Why bring so many if all you intended to do was scout?. It was stupid. Wordlessly, Robin split off from the Autobots, leaving them to their own devices. He wanted a closer look at the thing he hadn't even gotten a glimpse of earlier and knew was there only because something had brought him here and he somehow doubted that it had been an act of God.

* * *

_**A/N: Why yes, I do hate Miko. Why do you ask?.**_


	4. Chapter 4 - The Device

The device sat atop steel supports, held a good fifty or sixty feet into the air. It appeared to be an unholy conglomeration of metal pipes, circuit boards, wires and flashing lights, all attached to a console off to the left by heavy cables. At the center of the device was a doughnut of metal which looked like it was made up of several small pieces of steel haphazardly welded together by someone with a nervous twitch and possibly OCD. Around the inner ring of the doughnut were little flickering blue light bulbs, whose function was at best a mystery. The hole in the ring was pointed at the ground. Or perhaps the sky. Who could tell?. The device was by no means the most peculiar contraption Robin had seen, but it was most definitely one of the ugliest.

Robin was certain he had not fallen a full fifty feet, so either the device had been lower to the ground earlier, or else the abyss reached beyond the metal ring a good thirty five feet or so.

The Decepticon from earlier, Starscream, was standing back from the console with his arms crossed irritably. Standing closer to the console was a shorter Decepticon whose most remarkable feature was his ludicrously shiny paint job. Where other robots seemed content to have dings and scratches in their paint, this fellow looked fresh off the assembly line (assuming that assembly lines were how these particular robots came into being. Robin didn't know, nor did he much care at the moment).

"Well!?," Starscream snarled impatiently.

"Clearly something went wrong," the other Decepticon replied mildly, drifting lackadaisically over to the main device and poking at a portion of it that was near the supports with a tool which looked a lot like a glorified screw driver.

"Clearly," Starscream growled, his bitter voice low.

"This could take some time," his somewhat less than submissive subordinate said "I'm really so much better at taking things apart than putting them together,"

"I'm aware of your shortcomings," Starscream snapped, then added "can you fix it or not?,"

"Ohhh...," the Decepticon stepped back from the apparatus and frowned at it, then shrugged "I don't know. It was experimental to begin with,"

Starscream clenched his fists, his metal fingers clicking sharply and grating against one another. He trembled with barely suppressed rage. It was impotent rage, as clearly he had need of this other Decepticon's skills and so there was little he could do besides fume.

The other Decepticon was apparently pleasantly aware of his own importance, and failed to cringe when Starscream barked out a threat.

"Knockout, you have six hours to show some kind of progress. If you fail, our... arrangement... will be terminated," he hissed, then snapped "and so will you!,"

In a moment, he had transformed into a jet and taken to the air. He disappeared into the sky, leaving Knockout staring after him. Knockout made a small 'humph' noise, shrugged indifferently once again, then set to work at a leisurely pace.

Robin wasn't sure what to make of the device. It looked nothing like any other electronic device he'd seen, even though it looked like many things on the surface. He realized that this was probably because it was "experimental". It looked sort of slap-dashed, unrefined, and none of the buttons or switches on the console appeared to be labeled, meaning that probably only the designer had any idea at all how to operate the thing.

Knockout frowned at the ring, then the console. He casually meandered over to the console and flipped a switch. The lights went off. He glared at the ring for a long moment, then flipped the switch again. The lights flickered, but failed to turn back on. He sighed, and switched them back off.

"Detach that from the rest," he ordered a few of the faceless robots, gesturing to the ring "carefully,"

They scurried to do as he said. They had heard Starscream's threat and knew their lives were in much more danger than Knockout's. As nameless, faceless drones, they occupied a value slot just slightly above human beings and below dirt, so far as Starscream was concerned. If there was any mistake, Knockout would undoubtedly blame them and Starscream would punish them because he couldn't afford to lose Knockout. But a few drones more or less made no difference to him.

They knew also that, if they didn't hurry, Knockout would very likely get bored and wander off to do something which he felt was more exciting. If this happened, no progress at all would be made. Knockout would say it was because his help was too slow and the drones would be blasted, in spite of the fact that Starscream knew of Knockout's habit of shirking off.

The only thing truly reliable about Decepticons was their thirst for violence and destruction. And even that was an unpredictable trait at best.

Knockout observed the proceedings with a strange mixture of intensity and dispassion. It was clear that this was not his favorite thing to do and he probably had a list of things in his head that he felt would be much more entertaining than what he was currently tasked with.

The ring was carefully detached from its housing, cautiously lowered from its great height and painstakingly set on the ground and leaned against one of the supports which were now holding up only the housing and what was presumably the power supply for the monstrous ring.

Only when the others had backed away did Knockout finally see fit to actually do something. He went up to the ring, tapped it with a finger and then crossed his arms in order to regard the thing thoughtfully. Robin began to suspect that Knockout had no idea how to make the ring do what it was supposed to, whatever that was. Either that or he simply couldn't be bothered to care.

The air was suddenly sliced open by a low hiss and strident zap of one of the robots' weapons.

Robin craned his neck from his hiding place among the rocks to see that the Autobots had engaged the enemy. He wondered if they knew more about the device than he did. It seemed fairly likely. The other explanation was that they were not very good at sneaking up and taking the enemy by surprise.

Knockout looked up from his tweaking of the ring. His eyes widened and he seemed either alarmed or at the very least surprised. The expression on his face suggested that he preferred violence when it was not happening to him. He looked as though he was actively considering fleeing.

Before he could decide whether or not to follow that impulse, he was struck full in the chest by Arcee, who had flung herself at him like a ninja, kicking Knockout to the ground while he was still confused. But Knockout rolled with the hit, and then administered one of his own, striking the back of Arcee's leg with an arm. Arcee reeled and Knockout regained his feet.

Robin turned his gaze to another section of the battlefield, to see that Bumblebee had also directly engaged one of the Decepticons. At one point, he backed away and fired at the Decepticon's chest plate, which caused the metal to split. When they closed once more, he took the opportunity to pry the plate open, reach under and yank out a handful of cables. The Decepticon's body jerked and twitched, and sparks flew from its chest. Then it fell and lay inert at Bumblebee's feet.

When a Decepticon came tromping by, intent on helping some of its friends gang up on Bulkhead, Robin at last sprang into action. He had seen the vulnerability of their joints, and now knew that beneath their chest plates were simple cables, which he could either cut or pull loose. This information gave him a means of attack, one which he had lacked until now.

Robin leaped and landed on the back of the Decepticon's neck, planting a pair of birdarangs deep into the living metal there, where the plate shielding was virtually nonexistent. The robot squealed, first in surprise, then in pain. It arched its back and threw back its head. Robin clung to the birdarangs. The punctures they had made began to ooze a light blue substance. Robin didn't know what this was, but he did know that it made the birdarangs hard to keep a grip on as it slowly seeped over them and began to trail its way down the Decepticon's back.

Robin let go with one hand and pulled out his grappling hook as the Decepticon staggered. He aimed and fired, and the hook imbedded itself in a nearby rock face. Robin leaped off the Decepticon as it fell to one knee, slowly shaking its head. He knew he hadn't killed it, but he had wounded it. They could feel pain. Even if he couldn't kill them, he could hurt them. In his world, fear and pain were among the greatest of weapons for heroes and villains alike. That was evidently true here as well.

He clung to the rock face for a few seconds, looking around and assessing his options. He wasn't sure of the Autobots' objectives, and he didn't really care. He was not a part of their team. In one movement, he pushed off from the rocks and detached the hook from the cliff. He hung in the air for a moment as the grappler reset itself, then fired it at the support attached to the console of the device.

Robin swung up onto the console, careful not to touch any buttons or levers, some of which were as tall as he was. He plugged into the device with the computer in his gauntlet. He was used to fighting battles which he could not necessarily win. If things went badly and the device could not be taken from the Decepticons, information on its construction and purpose was better than nothing. Sometimes that could even be as valuable as a win.

While the two electronic devices conversed with one another, Robin sat very still, keeping a sharp lookout for any robot who might protest his interference. He was uncomfortably exposed, in plain view of any who had the inclination to look his way.

But he had a clear advantage. He was so small that the Decepticons, for the most part, didn't even notice him in the first place. And, if they did, they didn't necessarily process what he was or what he was doing. Aside from which, they were actively engaged in fighting the Autobots, which were clearly much more interesting than a mere human with a primitive computer.

Robin had anticipated this indifference, which was why he had chosen to place himself in this position to begin with. In an ordinary battle, with normal opponents in his own world, he would have considered this much too risky a move without someone to back him up or intentionally distract the enemy.

Amidst the deafening pounding and electric vibrating of the air due to the robots punching and shooting one another, Robin didn't hear the scream of the diving jet until it was almost too late. Having heard the conflict, Starscream had turned around and come back to deal with the problem directly. Spotting Robin perched on his precious device, Starscream had circled once and then dove for the console, not daring to fire lest he destroy the mechanism.

The jet dove straight for Robin, cutting low enough to clip him with a wing if he wasn't fast enough to get out of the way. And, at those speeds, a wing could probably cut him neatly in half. Ripping the connector from the console, Robin didn't waste a second leaping to his feet and racing for the edge. He leaped off blind, trusting that there would be something to catch on the way down or shoot with his grappling hook. There was no time to think about what would happen if he was wrong.

As it turned out, Knockout was standing close enough for Robin to hook him at the knee joint. Knockout didn't even notice Robin clambering down his leg. There was no time to try and disable Knockout as he had other robots, for Starscream was circling for another pass and now there was nothing to prevent him from firing on Robin.

Darting among the towering robots, Robin had no illusions of safety, but at least Starscream couldn't get a shot at him. Starscream gave it up, setting his sights on the nearest Autobot instead. Stomping, straining, sliding and sometimes falling, the robots were possibly a greater threat to Robin when they didn't even know he was there. Even the Autobots were a threat as being stepped on by one of them would be little different from being stepped on by a Decepticon.

Robin did _not_ want to be here on the ground. He leaped onto the nearest robot leg, which turned out to be Bumblebee, who took no more notice of him than Knockout had earlier, completely absorbed in trying to survive a fight with two Decepticons who were ganging up on him.

Climbing up the oblivious Autobot's leg was more difficult than Robin would have expected, had he been given enough time to form a theory about what it would be like. As it was, he had no time to think, only to react, and his instincts were all that stood between him and being flattened.

He nearly fell off a number of times, and never got the chance to employ his grappler. In the end, he wound up climbing to Bumblebee's shoulder, then hopping off onto the arm of one of the Decepticons who was, at the time, trying to hold Bumblebee down so the other could hit him.

Robin's timing was impeccable, as Bumblebee broke free of the hold a fraction of a second later and hit the other Decepticon in the face. Robin, for his part, slipped under the 'hood' of his Decepticon. After a quick cursory examination of the plethora of cables just beneath the surface (an investigation which revealed nothing of value to him), Robin experimentally grabbed one and dislodged it.

The resultant spasming of the Decepticon's body was so violent that Robin was knocked hard against the outer 'wall' so roughly that white spots flashed in his eyes and temporarily dazzled him. Another cable sent him into a spin as the Decepticon twitched, jerked and fell over. By this time, sparks were flying from inside the Decepticon's body and Robin decided that now would be a good time to make his exit. Dead or not, the Decepticon now had concerns of its own which would put it out of the fight.

Crawling clear of the twitching body was hard. Each time he almost got clear, the Decepticon would shudder violently, knocking him back. Robin almost got himself electrocuted more than once before finally freeing himself of the Decepticon's chest.

Shaking and dusting himself off, Robin looked around wearily. The battlefield looked about the same to him as it had before. One Decepticon more or less didn't mean much when it took a year just to bring a single individual down. Robin was tempted to just find himself a sheltered spot and wait it out, he felt so ineffective. These guys were way out of his league, at least now he was on his own. With his team, he was sure he would be able to bring them down. But on his own, he was basically an insect, pecking futilely at the hide of a Rhinoceros. Sure there were soft spots, but finding and getting to them was almost more trouble than it was worth.

And then it happened. A terrible wail of agony split the air, and drew Robin's attention back to the device. The doughnut was lit, its center a whirling vortex of darkness and light. It was still on its side on the ground, but Knockout had plugged it back in.

The cry had come from Arcee, who was being dragged into the abyss. It seemed to be pulling her apart, the blue fluid of the robots was seeping through the cracks of her armor. The device had disabled her almost entirely, she had fallen to the ground and was unable to even hold to the ground to prevent herself from being sucked in. All that stood in the way was Bumblebee, holding onto her with both hands, straining against the pull with all his might, but losing ground. Inch by inch, he too was drawn towards the abyss, his own strength ebbing as he got closer to it.


	5. Chapter 5 - Instinct

Optimus raised his weapon to fire on the console, but hesitated for a second. A human life hung in the balance, he knew. Maybe he would have fired anyway, maybe not. But he never got the chance. He might have hesitated, but Robin didn't.

Springing into action, Robin made a run for the device. He threw a birdarang at the console, and two at the edges of the abyss. Dodging among the Decepticons who were standing somewhat stunned, Robin threw everything he had at the device at any part of it that looked vulnerable.

The birdarangs each hit their mark, and sparks flew, snapping into flames, which built quickly in intensity. The vortex destabilized. Bumblebee was soon able to hold his ground and then to actually pull Arcee from the sinister grip of the blue-white flames of the abyss. Starscream, infuriated at seeing his device destroying itself, dove towards Arcee and Bumblebee, intending to destroy them.

As he fired, Bumblebee and Arcee broke free from the abyss and were thrown back and out of the missile's path. It hit the doughnut, which exploded.

Robin realized what was happening too late to get clear. All he could do was cringe and put up his arms to defend his face and neck as fire and debris engulfed him.

* * *

The awareness that he wasn't dead was the first sensation Robin had. He wasn't sure how he felt about this, as the next five sensations were all incredibly painful. His lungs felt scorched, his ribs bruised, tiny people seemed to be conducting an energetic mining operation in his brain, his head ached and the shoulder which had taken the brunt of explosion was burned and felt cracked or broken. These were all terribly unpleasant things, which made him think that perhaps waking up wasn't all it was cracked up to be. This brought to him memory of earlier (or was it later?) when he had thought that maybe he ought not have gotten up this morning (or was it yesterday morning?).

Hearing voices he didn't recognize snapped him fully awake. His memory didn't come flooding back, but his training kicked in. He opened his eyes and tried to roll to his feet. Finding that he was being held, he kicked out and was surprised that he struck metal. He was further startled when he was released quickly and found himself able to leap to the ground.

He felt dizzy and swayed slightly, backing instinctively away from whatever it was that had been holding him. His swimming vision didn't at first allow him to identify the moving shapes which loomed before him, nor did his ringing ears permit him to recognize their words. Shaking his head fiercely helped more than he expected, as did taking a few deep breaths.

At last his memory clicked into place, the final piece of him to arrive back in the land of the living. It came to him about the time his vision and hearing cleared enough for him to recognize the Autobots and their base. Relative safety.

"Robin, are you alright?," the booming, if kind, voice of Optimus seemed to make the ground tremble.

"Yeah," he managed, but felt that perhaps he'd spoken too quietly, so he cleared his throat and added somewhat more loudly "I'm fine, just a bit bruised is all,"

He pondered his choice of words, wondering if the Autobots understood the term 'bruised'. They could clearly be hurt, but he wasn't sure if their definition of what he felt wasn't 'dented' or something. He didn't spend much time contemplating this.

"Is Arcee okay?," he asked after he was done thinking.

"I'll recover," now he saw her, standing but leaning heavily on Bumblebee "thanks to you,"

"Don't thank me," Robin told her "I was just acting on instinct, that's all,"

He hadn't exactly planned to say that, nor had he meant to sound as harsh as he did. He was being defensive, and he knew why. Though these robots had been good to him, they were still strangers. He was vulnerable, perhaps more so than he'd ever been. Utterly alone in this world which he knew nothing about. And now, because of what he'd done to save Arcee, he had no way home.

Aside from that, he was very tired. It had been a long day, and a short period of unconsciousness (he knew it was short because the ground bridge had still been in the process of deactivating when he woke up) had done nothing to help that. His stomach was also beginning to register complaints, letting him know that it was empty and wasn't at all satisfied with that situation. He didn't know what to do about it, which made him inclined to ignore it.

"What you did was very brave," Optimus commented, his voice mild.

He seemed to have somehow missed the savagery in Robin's tone.

"You destroyed your only chance at getting home," Jack said, evidently having been filled in on what had happened over the radio while the Autobots were on their way home.

"Not my only chance," Robin said, more venomously than intended "I downloaded the schematics of the device. There's a chance I could rebuild it,"

"You?," Ratchet scoffed "what does a human know of our technology?,"

"More than you think," Robin shot back irritably "and since it was an experiment to begin with, I probably know as much about it as you do,"

"Even so," Optimus broke in before Ratchet could retort "Ratchet is better equipped to try and rebuild the device. He has access to technology which you do not,"

"Not to mention his size," Miko spoke for the first time, though she had been glaring at Robin since he'd woken up "so far as Autobot and Decepticon stuff goes, you're tiny,"

Robin glared at her, and she shrank back slightly, clearly remembering what had happened last time she ticked him off. But then he nodded.

"True enough. But," he turned to the Autobots "you have your own problems. There's no reason you should waste your time and resources on mine,"

"We have sworn to defend this world, and humanity," Optimus said "though not of this Earth, you are still human,"

"Besides," Arcee added "we owe you,"

Robin looked thoughtfully from one face to another, finally nodding. Ratchet knelt down so Robin could climb onto his hand. He then lifted Robin to the large computer and set the boy down on the control panel. Robin pulled the cord out of his gauntlet and plugged into the Autobot mainframe. He downloaded the information he'd gathered to the other computer.

"There," he said when he'd finished "you happy?,"

Ratchet looked dubiously at the information on his screen, then shook his head.

"I'm not sure I even understand all of this," Ratchet said, looking down at Robin "it will take some time to decipher its meaning, more to build it, and even then the device may not function as desired,"

"So tell me something I don't know," Robin grumbled "like where I can find a place to sleep,"

"It's a military base," Jack supplied helpfully "so there are sleeping quarters,"

"Well thanks," Robin said sarcastically "I figured that. Care to point me in the right direction?,"

Wordlessly, Jack pointed. Robin climbed down from the computer and stalked off down the hall. Once he was gone, Jack turned to Optimus.

"What's the matter with him?,"

"Yeah," Miko added before Optimus could speak "we're on his side, but he's all aggressive. He's just looking for a fight,"

"That was not aggression," Optimus told her.

"Looked like aggression to me," Miko crossed her arms.

"Robin is alone, in a world only similar enough to his own to make him homesick. He has no way of knowing if we are truly friends to him, yet he must depend on us because we are all he has. There was no anger in his eyes when he spoke, what you saw was fear,"

"How would you know?," Miko asked, not ready to believe the fear explanation.

"Because this world is as strange to us as it is to him," Optimus replied "yet we have each other, Autobots who we know and trust. He has but strangers to rely upon,"

None of the children had thought of it that way. Because Robin looked just like them, it hadn't occurred to them how very different his world might be from theirs. Now they thought about it, it was fairly obvious. The mask and outfit made him look very strange to them, but perhaps that was the norm where he was from. Aside from which, humans didn't generally do very well when they took on Decepticons, but Robin had reportedly taken out several and come away virtually unscathed until the very end of the fight when he was caught in an explosion which could just as easily have claimed Autobot lives as his own.

The strength and skill he had displayed under pressure could not have come from a life even remotely like Jack's or Miko's or Raff's. He might look like them, but it was clear upon only a very little reflection that he was vastly different. It followed that his world must also be very alien in order to produce such a creature as he.

"Still," Miko said, but her voice lacked conviction "the least he could do is be a little grateful,"

"For what?," Arcee, now sitting down and letting Ratchet examine her "he's saved us more often than we've saved him,"

Bumblebee made a series of noises that nobody bothered to translate because it was clear to all that he was simply agreeing with what Arcee said.

"The kid's tough," Bulkhead agreed "for a human,"

Miko said nothing to this. She'd wrapped her arms around herself as though suddenly cold. Nobody took any notice of this, nor did she want them too. She was thinking about earlier. Robin had really scared her. The only other time she'd felt that fear was when she was nearly killed by Decepticons. She wasn't sure which scared her more: Robin or thinking of what sort of world must have forged him.

* * *

Robin had found a room with a cot, but was unable to sleep there. Restless and uneasy, he wandered the halls of the place unnoticed by the Autobots, who went about their business efficiently and rather quietly for things so big. Eventually Robin found a way into the ventilation system and traveled that way, preferring that his explorations go unnoticed.

This led him to the main room where Ratchet was working. The ceiling had metal cross beams which, to one such as Robin, appeared to be exactly the same as catwalks. Never mind that they were only two or three inches wide, and that they lacked railings. It was a perfect way to travel, far overhead. Here he finally found rest, as he curled up around a cross section to watch Ratchet working, but drifted off to sleep. He was still there in the morning.

* * *

_**A/N: This chapter is rather short and a bit late. My apologies.**_


	6. Chapter 6 - Making Friends

The next day was a Saturday, but Jack got up early and called Arcee. They stopped at a drive through and Jack got himself some breakfast and ordered something for Robin. He wasn't at all sure if the human bird would like what he got, but he supposed he wouldn't know what Robin liked until he asked him. He guessed, and rightly so, that Robin had to be hungry.

When they arrived at the base, Jack went looking for Robin, but could find no evidence of him in any of the rooms with cots. He asked the Autobots if they'd seen Robin, but nobody had. If he'd known anything at all about Robin's origins, he might have looked upward, but it didn't occur to him. In fact, he didn't even know of the high wire-like highway of beams just overhead. Even if he had noticed it before, he would never think of it as something which could be walked on, much less slept on.

However, all of the activity down below had the effect of waking Robin. Quietly, he swung down from the ceiling, noticed by no one and casually strolled out from behind some machinery.

"There you are," Jack said, feeling slightly exasperated "I've been looking all over,"

"Obviously not," Robin replied neutrally.

Jack was not in the mood to debate that point, nor did he feel like asking Robin where he'd been.

"Here," he tossed the paper bag to Robin, who caught it and looked at it skeptically "I got you some breakfast. I don't know what you like-,"

Before Jack could go on, Robin interrupted him.

"Beggars can't be choosers," he said brightly, which came as a shock to Jack "thanks,"

It was the first time Jack had heard Robin say anything that wasn't spoken in a combative tone. Robin climbed the stairs to the couch and sat down on it. Jack followed him and took a seat on the opposite end, opening the bag containing his own breakfast.

While he ate, he observed Robin out of the corner of his eye. Robin examined his own breakfast thoroughly, as though suspicious of it. It could just as easily have been him trying to figure out what all was in the meal, but that seemed unlikely. He then proceeded to inhale the food, suggesting that it had been a very long time indeed since his last meal.

He then sat back and sighed contentedly. Sleep and food had taken much of the tension out of his face and he didn't seem quite as high strung as he had the day before. Jack hadn't noticed the yesterday, but Robin had been considerably bruised by the explosion. This was especially apparent across his right temple, which was an ugly shade of dark gray. The exposed skin of his right arm had been burned as well as a portion of his costume. Jack wondered what unseen injuries Robin might have, but decided that it would be best if he didn't ask.

"Robin," Jack paused after saying the name, then went on "that's... not your real name, is it?,"

"You mean the one I was born with?," Robin asked "no, no it's not. But I answer to it, at least when I feel like it, so it's real enough,"

"Ah," Jack said, then paused again, more awkwardly this time.

Robin seemed to find this terribly funny. He first cleared his throat, and then smirked. The next time he spoke, there was a lilt of laughter in his voice.

"I don't bite, you know. At least, not typically," he said, then added for good measure "really. I'm about as dangerous to you as an Autobot. Less if you count that they could step on you by accident,"

"Really?," Jack was disbelieving of this "what about your... exchange... with Miko yesterday?,"

"Oh. Right. That," Robin hesitated and looked uneasy for a moment, then he smiled an ingratiating sort of smile "I was just stressed is all. There wasn't time to explain it. I wouldn't have hurt her, even though she is annoying,"

"I see," Jack's voice betrayed his reservations.

"I don't expect you to understand," Robin told him "heck, I'll probably get in trouble for it when I get home. You know, if I actually mention it, which I'm not so sure I will, truth be told,"

Jack didn't point out that Robin meant 'if' he got home. And that was a pretty big 'if'. From the look in Robin's eyes, it was clear that he already knew that and Jack pointing it out would only irritate him.

"Who would be dumb enough to pick a fight with you?," Jack asked, somewhat incredulous.

"My mentor for one," Robin said "but more likely my Team. After all, Batman's the one who taught me how to put the fear of God into people,"

"He did a good job," Jack said, feeling a bit more at ease now that Robin didn't seem so inclined to bite his head off "I mean... to be honest, you're really not that scary to look at,"

"I know, I know," Robin sighed, clearly feigning a wounded tone "I'm small for my age and nothing about bright red is frightening. Not to mention my name,"

"How old are you anyway?," Jack asked.

"Hmm?. Oh... almost fourteen now," Robin replied "why?. Does it matter?,"

"Not really, just curious," Jack said.

"Curiosity is good," Robin told him, though he sounded somewhat distracted.

He had noticed the gaming system, apparently for the first time and was inspecting it almost warily, as though he expected it to try and bite him.

"In the right amount, it can be the very thing that keeps you alive," he went on "though too much will get you killed. What sort of games does this thing have?,"

It took Jack a moment to respond. The question had been virtually a run-on sentence and was so totally unrelated to what Robin had been saying that it took a second for Jack to realize that it was part of a completely different conversation.

"Racing games, mostly," Jack answered finally.

"Cool," Robin said "can I play?,"

"Um, sure. Hand me one of the controllers,"

Robin seemed like almost a completely different person than he had yesterday. Jack was somewhat taken aback by his manner, which seemed so like any ordinary person that it was difficult to believe he had done any of the things he'd done the day before.

Jack had no idea that Robin's mind was actively absorbing all that he had seen the day before, his near-perfect memory able to slowly pick apart and analyze everything from the design of the robots to the sensation of falling through the abyss. Most importantly, his mind was considering what sort of weapons he might be able to make which would be of use should he find himself attacked by Decepticons. He was thinking about all the things he'd examined on his own the night before, considering how to combine them into something usable. But he was mostly consumed by the schematics of the device, trying to figure how it worked, and how he might facilitate its construction.

He was also resting. He would exercise some later, but right now he was giving his battered body a rest while he had the chance. He knew the value of taking rest where you could get it, because the opportunity might not arise again for some time.

Even though he was barely focusing on the game at all, he found Jack to be a poor opponent. He decided to take it easy on Jack. He even intentionally lost a couple of races. When he wasn't being a superhero, Robin was an avid gamer with reflexes like a cat both in real and virtual life. Being hyperactive, but also capable of intense focus meant Robin tended to be good at pretty much everything he put his mind to because he had the energy and determination to practice and figure out how whatever it was worked. This was a must for any hero who lacked superpowers, and even many who actually _did_ have powers.

He was mildly surprised to see potential in Jack. Each time they raced, Jack upped his game with an ever-more determined look on his face. It was a pale reflection of what he was truly capable of. With time and training, Jack could probably become every bit as strong as a member of the Team. Robin didn't gather this impression entirely from the game. It was also a gut reaction. Something in Jack's manner said that he was a born leader, capable of great things, only lacking someone to teach him.

Knowing this made Robin feel more at ease somehow, though if anyone had asked he wouldn't have been able to explain exactly why that was.

Jack, for his part, was completely unaware of both Robin's opinion of him as well as his own potential. He did feel inexplicably more at ease with Robin. Something about playing video games made Robin seem more human, more approachable and less dangerous. It was, of course, laughable. After all, Bumblebee frequently played video games with Raff, and he was obviously far from human.

After they'd been playing for about an hour, Miko and Raff showed up. Having an audience sparked off the competitive nature in both boys and they played with more enthusiasm than before. It was only then that Jack began to suspect that Robin had been going easy on him. Little did he know that Robin was still going easy, just not as easy as before.

"You were letting me win earlier, weren't you?," Jack asked while waiting for a track to load.

"What gave you that idea?," Robin asked, with an impish grin.

Jack's eyes narrowed, but he clearly knew himself to be outmatched. So he did the wisest thing. He passed the controller to a better player.

"Here, Raff. Smoke him for me, will ya?,"

Raff took a seat on the couch and adjusted his glasses. Perhaps someone else might have taken him lightly. Robin could tell that Raff was physically quite weak. However, he had the ability to speak directly with Bumblebee, which suggested the same affinity for electronics as Robin had. Which in turn suggested that perhaps he was as good at gaming as Robin was.

Robin was excited by this prospect. He hated to lose, but playing Jack had started to get mind numbingly dull. He had meant to quit after the next race and go get some exercise, maybe explore the area around the base for a bit before poking around the schematics with Ratchet for awhile (or on his own, if Ratchet didn't appreciate his help). But the promise of a challenge was too good to pass up.

"My money's on Raff," Miko said to Bulkhead.

"Don't bet on it," Jack told her "Robin's got more tricks than I've ever seen, and he was going easy,"

The race was close, the competition was fierce. Robin and Raff seemed almost evenly matched. If this had been Robin's first time playing, Raff would have had the advantage of experience. But Robin had been playing all morning, and had quickly picked up the finer points of the game.

The race turned out to be so close that nobody was sure who'd won until the game told them that Raff had taken first by the merest fraction of a second.

"Again?," Raff asked his opponent.

Robin smiled, but didn't answer. He didn't have to. He was game if Raff was, all too eager for a rematch. He hated to lose. He really did. But he was also thrilled to have a real opponent which he could really use his skills against. In spite of all the training, all the experience, Robin was still as much a kid as anyone his age. The game was also a welcome distraction.

Though the reality was that the device might be impossible to properly rebuild, and there was no guarantee it was a two-way abyss, Robin had decided in his mind that it wasn't 'if', it was 'when'. Though he was trained to be patient, it was not in his nature to be so.

Aside from which, he had an uncomfortable feeling inside. It was only faint now, but he could feel it. Something wasn't right. But he didn't want to think about it. And so he put it in the back of his mind, and put all of his focus on the game and trying to beat Raff at it.


	7. Chapter 7 - Impressions

"Robin!. I needed that!,"

Ratchet had been off making minor repairs to part of the computer system and returned to find one of his tools on the floor utterly demolished. In the middle of the disassembled object was Robin, reassembling it into something completely unrecognizable.

At Ratchet's exclamation, Robin looked up.

"Really?," he asked quizzically "I thought it was broken,"

"Ugh... yes," Ratchet grumbled "Bulkhead smashed it accidentally a few days ago. I hadn't gotten around to fixing it,"

"Well I'm sorry," this statement didn't surprise Ratchet, but the next did "I'll fix it for you,"

At first, Ratchet thought Robin meant that he would put it back the way he'd found it. But it soon became apparent that Robin fully intended to repair the thing.

"Do you even know what that is?," Ratchet asked after a time.

"Yes," Robin replied brightly, after a moment adding "No. Well... sort of,"

"Sort of?," Ratchet grunted.

"Well, I know how it works and what it's supposed to do, but I haven't the foggiest idea what you'd call it. I know what I'd call it, but that's probably something else entirely,"

Ratchet didn't believe this, at least not at first. But after several minutes of silence, he was somewhat in awe of Robin's proficiency with what, to him, had to be a completely new device. In Ratchet's experience, humanity was as a whole not especially good with technology. He'd seen one exception with Raff, and knew he was now looking on another who'd evidently had more experience than the aforementioned Rafael.

"You've encountered a lot of alien technology, haven't you?," Ratchet asked when Robin was very nearly finished reassembling, and repairing, the tool.

Robin paused his work and looked thoughtfully at a nearby wall for a time. Then he shrugged and returned to work, replying modestly "I suppose I've had a fair amount of experience,"

His tone suggested that he knew of certain individuals who were even more technologically inclined than he was, but not very many.

Finishing his work, Robin stood up and dusted off his hands, stepping back from the tool which was very nearly as large as he was. Ratchet picked it up, tested it, found that it worked.

"Well...," Ratchet said begrudgingly "thank you. Now, if you don't mind my asking... what were you trying to build in the first place?,"

"Hmm?," Robin seemed distracted, then he shrugged indifferently "oh, nothing important. I'll find something else to build it out of,"

Without another word, he sauntered off in the general direction of the exit, leaving Ratchet to gape after him. In truth, Robin had no idea how to go about finding the materials for the device he wanted to build, but he wasn't about to say so to Ratchet because then he would have to explain that he was attempting to build something with which to kill a transformer. He didn't plan on using it on an Autobot, but Ratchet had no way of knowing that, nor did he have cause to believe it if Robin decided to tell him so.

This would not be the last time Robin left someone speechless.

* * *

It was late afternoon on a school day. The kids were doing their homework, but finding it hard to concentrate because someone was making a lot of noise downstairs. They exchanged looks of irritation, then finally got fed up and went down the stairs to tell Robin to stop whatever it was he was doing. They never got to that though, because what he was doing seemed so utterly bizarre.

He was jumping and looking around wildly, shouting what seemed to be random words at Bumblebee, who was visually tracking his movements and looking terribly excited about something.

"Wall!. Light!. Gray!. Um... stairs!. Floor!. Concrete!. Sofa!,"

Bumblebee let out a mournful wail and gestured frantically off to the right, burring urgently.

"No, no," Robin exclaimed "don't tell me, I'll get it!,"

At this point, the other Autobots began to gather, having overheard Robin and Bumblebee and wondering what the heck was going on. It was unclear whether Robin's last comment had been meant for them or for Bumblebee.

"Chair!. Computer... uh... uh.. um... keyboard?. Keyboard!,"

Bumblebee let out a delighted buzz and punched the air enthusiastically. Robin jumped around as if he'd won some kind of epic victory, whooping wildly.

"Alright, say it again," Robin said.

Bumblebee made a noise which Jack and Miko could only assume meant 'keyboard'. Robin nodded, eyes alight with understanding and unbridled excitement.

"What are you doing?," Miko broke in.

"Yeah... what she said," Bulkhead agreed.

Bumblebee started to buzz and gesture and Robin was speaking at the same time. It was only Raff who was able to understand the gist of it with both speaking at once.

"They were playing a kind of charades," Raff said, adjusting his glasses "Robin's trying to learn Bumblebee's language by having him say words and guessing what they mean,"

"Language?," Miko scoffed "Bee buzzes, whistles, beeps and occasionally wheezes but it's not a language,"

Robin spat out a series of words that left all but Miko bewildered. She scowled at him and crossed her arms, making it clear that she understood exactly what he'd said and took offense to it.

"What?," Jack asked, addressing Robin, but it was Miko who answered.

"He said if it's not a language, then neither is Japanese,"

"It's true," Robin insisted "and if any of you took the time to listen, you'd know it too,"

Bumblebee said something, and Robin responded without even thinking.

"No, it _is_ their fault," he growled "there's nothing wrong with you, it's only because they don't take the time or put in the effort,"

"Wait...," Miko hesitated to ask, but felt she had to "did you just understand him?. Like.. perfectly?,"

"Huh?," Robin looked away from Bumblebee towards her, then back thoughtfully "well, yeah, I guess so. Why?. What does it matter to you?,"

For once in her life, Miko had absolutely no answer. None whatsoever.

* * *

When Robin wasn't inspiring shock and awe, he was generally off on his own, doing things which were at best a mystery to everyone around him. Sometimes he would disappear for hours, and no amount of searching would divulge his whereabouts. He would always reappear, strolling in nonchalantly, as if his vanishing act were nothing worth remarking on.

Once when Arcee was bringing him to base, Jack spotted Robin out running in the desert. He had been surprised by how far out Robin was, knowing the masked fellow had probably run the whole way. Robin's speed and agility were uncanny, and nowhere were his abilities so spectacularly displayed as when he was out in the desert 'scampering around' as Ratchet sourly put it.

One day Raff found him doing acrobatics on the ceiling. Raff had gotten bored of watching Jack and Miko playing video games and wandered off to do something on his own. He had been playing an imaginary game in what he presumed to be an empty hallway.

A heavy 'thud' ahead interrupted his game. He moved forward cautiously, remembering the last time he'd found a strange creature roaming the halls.

But it wasn't a scraplet, it was Robin, alternately striking a training dummy had had cobbled together from things lying around the base and racing around the room he was in, making use of a variety of objects he'd clearly set up as obstacles, some of which were attached to the ceiling. At one point he was walking on his hands only to push off the ground suddenly, launching himself right for the training dummy's head, feet first. The head snapped off and Robin sailed right on past it into a nearby wall, which he bounced off of, sending him into a backward flip. He touched down on his hands, then bounced to his feet.

"Hi!," he panted, apparently having noticed Raff in the doorway almost at once "care to join me?,"

"Who me?," Raff asked "I dunno, it looks hard,"

Robin coughed politely in a vain attempt at hiding his laughter.

"Not once you get the hang of it," he said "I was born to this stuff... well... not the punching bit. That part I learned when I was nine,"

At Raff's bewildered look, Robin went on.

"I was a circus performer," he explained "knew trapeze stunts better than my own name. When I was nine... well.. everything changed and I became sidekick to a vigilante,"

Raff found this remarkable, but Robin was so casual in speaking of it that he dared not comment, assuming (incorrectly) that this must be fairly normal in Robin's world.

"Here, let me show you something," Robin waved Raff further into the room "Now, you stand like this... no, no... here... like this. There ya go,"

Self defense was something Raff had never thought about, always assuming he was too small and weak to learn it. It was something cooler, and taller, kids did. Kids like Jack, and Miko. But Robin was used to being the small one in a fight, and it didn't take much thinking on his part to figure out how to compensate for Raff's glasses, allowing him to execute some basic moves without losing them.

When eventually Miko and Jack got to wondering where Raff had gone, they found him performing some exercises with Robin, which looked extremely complicated from the outside. Raff was a quick study, and Robin a surprisingly good teacher.

Robin had missed practicing with his team. Heck, he flat missed his team. He was used to having company, be it Batman or the Team. He appeared to be a loner to the Team, but that really wasn't the case. As a circus performer, he'd worked closely with his family. As Batman's sidekick, he'd never been left on his own for long. And the trend continued when he'd joined the Team. More than anything since landing on this rock, Robin had been terribly, desperately lonely.

Seeing Jack and Miko, Raff stopped what he was doing, halfway embarrassed. Then he nudged Robin.

"Can you teach them too?,"

"Hmm?. Oh sure," Robin said brightly, then waved them in "come on in guys,"

Jack went in, but Miko hesitated, frowning doubtfully at Robin.

"Oh come on," Robin groaned "you're not still mad at me, are you?,"

"Come on," Raff encouraged "it's really fun,"

Miko raised a skeptical eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"Wouldn't you like to know how I tackled you?," Robin tempted her "and how to do it yourself?,"

Miko bristled, but said nothing. She rarely had anything to say to Robin, which made theirs the most unique relationship either Jack or Raff had seen.

"And how to defend against it?," he added enticingly, dangling the phrase like bait.

At last Miko smiled, accepting the veiled challenge.

"Bring it," she said.

It was much later that Bumblebee noticed them as he was walking down the hall looking for Raff. He watched as Miko enthusiastically struck out at Robin, who slipped to the side and then watched dispassionately as she crashed into a nearby wall. At first, he thought Miko was actually attacking Robin, but then noticed that both of them seemed to be having fun.

Bulkhead noticed Bumblebee standing in the hallway and came to investigate, just in time to watch Miko strike out at Robin, this time completely missing. She almost did a face plant on the concrete floor, but in a flash Robin had caught her and righted her. She pushed him off indignantly and he seemed to dance away, his eyes daring her to come at him again.

One by one, the Autobots gathered around the door until they were crowded there, completely unnoticed by all except perhaps Robin. The kids took it in turns to attack Robin, with him calling out clear instructions which they generally ignored the first time around, thinking that they knew better.

When at last Miko finally succeeded in tackling Robin from the side, Bulkhead let out a cheer for her, which so thoroughly startled her that she lost focus, which allowed Robin to turn the tables and pin her.

"Focus," he whispered to her "is paramount to survival,"

He got off her and offered a helping hand, which she brushed away, getting up on her own.

"I almost had you that time," Miko said, pointing a meaningful finger in his face.

Robin nodded fractionally.

"That time," he agreed "now... I'm starving. What's for lunch?,"

In reality, he was exhausted. He had been almost through exercising when Raff had come upon him, and training three beginners was not as easy as certain members of the League made it look.

* * *

All was not fun and games for Robin. Aside from loneliness, he continued to feel unease at the Autobot base. Though the Autobots were used to watching their step during the day when Jack, Miko and Raff were around, they tended to not watch where they were going at night, meaning that Robin had to be constantly keeping an eye on the air above him, lest he find himself most unfortunately crushed.

Aside from the fear of being squished, there was also soul crushing boredom to consider. Though the Autobots were attentive with their own humans, they generally ignored Robin or they were out on patrol. Even Bumblebee, whom Robin had bonded with somewhat, was poor in the way of companionship. The kids were at school all day most days and, when they weren't, they were either playing with their bots or doing homework. Ratchet was grumpy, and only grudgingly allowed Robin to participate in the designing and eventual building of the Abyss Device (or AD, as Robin frequently referred to it, usually while laughing. The Autobots didn't get the joke. The humans just didn't think it was particularly funny).

There was also the occasional visit from Agent Fowler. Robin declined to meet the fellow, hanging about in the rafters until the man was gone. He never went too far, always in earshot so he could eavesdrop. In this way he learned of M.E.C.H., as well as getting more intel on the Decepticons. Basically, they were galaxy conquering evil-doers who killed anyone who got in their way. This had been Robin's first, second and third impressions, supporting the theory that the first impression is not always the wrong one. It was a little while before Robin caught on that M.E.C.H. were humans, as they were spoken of in general terms and basically sounded like paranoid evil-doers who killed anyone that got in their way, not unlike galaxy conquering evil-doers who also killed anyone who got in their way. Funny thing about evil-doers, there was generally a lot of killing going on where they were involved.

The middle of the Nevada desert is no place for a superhero. Robin could hear all he wanted, and more, about crimes taking place out in the real world, but could do nothing about it. He had no mode of transport other than walking or hitching a ride with an Autobot (which was an exercise in frustration). Even the miniscule town of Jasper where the kids lived was too far to walk to. Even if he did get there, the biggest criminals seemed to be school bullies, from what he'd heard. Frankly, there just wasn't anything for him to do with himself. None of his skills did him a bit of good here.

Robin didn't spend any time worrying about how his Team was getting on without him. He knew they were fine. It was in their training, in their experience, and in their very nature to adapt to new situations, whether they liked it or not. In fact, Robin spent as little time thinking of them as he possibly could. All it did was make him homesick, which didn't help anyone, least of all himself.

However, Robin did feel a constant ache inside, which was something other than an emotional reaction to missing his home. It started off hardly noticeable, especially with the injuries he'd sustained fighting the Decepticons. But it got worse fairly steadily, spreading from his heart to the rest of him until he felt a dull pain just about everywhere, almost like he had the flu or something. Instinct told him that he had to find his way home, that things would get worse the longer he was away. He didn't know how or why this was so, knew only that it was. He had long ago learned that, if you must question your instincts, you should only do it after the situation has passed, and so he did not question the powerful desire within, urging him to go home, and get there soon.


	8. Chapter 8 - Crossing the Bridge

It happened suddenly, but not without warning. Unfortunately, the warning signs went unnoticed or ignored. That is, until it was too late.

Robin and Ratchet had been working on the AD for the better part of the morning. To any outside observer, they appeared to be doing more arguing than actual work, but any who took the time to watch more closely would realize that the two were making tremendous progress. Ratchet was good for what for Robin would be extremely heavy lifting, and Robin could get into small places and make what for Ratchet would be very delicate adjustments. Sometimes they were doing both at the same time, Ratchet holding an enormously heavy object directly over Robin's head while the boy worked on a computer chip hardly larger than a penny, seemingly oblivious of the swaying and unsecured metal part overhead which was often roughly the size of a small car, at times weighing as much as a semi-truck.

The other Autobots were out on patrol. The kids were hanging around, doing the normal things they did on a Saturday morning (mostly watching television). Everything seemed to be running smoothly, and was very routine (assuming anything could become routine considering the unusual circumstances).

"Ah, scrap," it hadn't taken long for Robin to pick up the robots' favorite expletive "hold on a bit, Ratchet," Robin crawled out from under the mustang-sized part of the AD.

They had plugged it in, thinking they were all done under the hood there, but found they'd forgotten something. Rather than disassemble the whole works (a lengthy and complicated process), Ratchet was simply holding it up as high as the attached cables would allow, giving Robin just enough space to slide under and work on the problem.

"I need another one of these," Robin held a tool over his head so Ratchet could see, before stalking over to one of many tool boxes.

"Oh, well why didn't you get it earlier then?. What have you been doing under there for the past ten minutes?," Ratchet grumbled, shifting his grip slightly.

"Working," Robin tossed over his shoulder "there's more than one problem in there, and I don't have a lot of space to work with,"

"At your size, you shouldn't need much," Ratchet grunted.

"Aside from which," Robin looked up from the box he was digging around in to glare at Ratchet "I didn't realize I'd need more than one,"

"What kind of mechanic are you!?," Ratchet snapped irritably.

"As if you've ever built one of these things before," Robin said, then stood up triumphantly holding the object he'd been looking for, which he proceeded to wave at Ratchet as he crossed back to the beginnings of the AD "don't tell me how to do my job,"

"Well someone has to," Ratchet told him.

"Look," Robin retorted as he slid back into the cramped, dark and airless chamber he'd been working in, his voice becoming muffled and his sentences punctuated by grunting and panting as he tried to work in the cramped space "I don't see you crawling in here and getting this done, so unless you want to take the whole thing apart-,"

"No, no," Ratchet interrupted, genuinely horrified by the idea "you're doing fine. Uh... keep going,"

"Yeah," Robin coughed "I thought not,"

Ratchet opened his mouth to respond to this, couldn't think of anything to say, and so shut it again. He then nearly dropped what he was holding (which would have been most unfortunate for Robin, being beneath it and only slightly sturdier than a marshmallow so far as the two-ish ton metal brick was concerned) in startlement when, in essence, the phone rang. One of the bots on patrol had sent out an emergency broadcast.

"Get out of there!," Ratchet snapped.

"Eh?," Robin stuck his head out from under the 'brick', and only then was he able to hear the alarm "oh," he scrambled out at once, and Ratchet didn't waste a second dropping the brick and hurrying over to the computer to respond to the distress call.

Robin stayed right where he was on his knees, taking deep, refreshing breaths of clear air. The alarm had brought Jack, Miko and Raff right over. They peered over the railing from the second-floor landing, each wondering if it was their Autobot who was in trouble.

"It's Bulkhead," Ratchet announced after several seconds of tense silence "but the radio's on the fritz. I can't get a clear signal,"

Over the speakers came a garbled series of objectionable noises, which refused to solidify themselves into an actual speech pattern, no matter what Ratchet did. Jack, Miko and Raff exchanged worried glances.

"Let me help," Raff said, climbing over the railing.

Ratchet helped him over to the computer and then resumed his fiddling. He no longer questioned Raff's ability with computers, even though it was strange for a human's ability with machines to be on par with his own.

"Turn it up louder," Robin said, apparently too quietly to be noticed, so he cleared his throat and repeated it, more loudly this time "louder!,"

"That won't clear up the distortion," Ratchet told him.

"It doesn't have to," Robin replied distractedly, head cocked to one side "I can... almost make it out,"

"You can, can you?," Ratchet spoke in a tone of doubt, but turned the volume up.

It had been loud before, now it was almost painful, vibrating the very walls. Miko and Jack covered their ears, but Robin closed his eyes and frowned, a look of intense concentration on his face. After a moment, he began to speak. He rattled off a series of coordinates.

"He's under attack by Decepticons," Robin announced "he's pinned down, and badly damaged. He needs back up, and a medic,"

His eyes snapped open and Ratchet turned the volume down to a tolerable level.

"You heard all that?," he asked.

"It's just a matter of ignoring what doesn't matter and paying attention to what does," Robin replied.

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Ratchet told Bulkhead, unsure if his comrade could hear him or not.

He then switched frequencies, only to find out that it wasn't Bulkhead's radio that was was in need of repairs. It was, in fact, his own.

"Scrap!," Ratchet pounded the desk with a fist.

His thoughts raced. He wasn't much of a fighter. He needed backup. But Bulkhead probably did not have time for him to repair the radio and contact the other Autobots.

"We're going," the tone of Robin's voice startled Ratchet.

Robin was on his feet now, fists clenched. He was sweaty and grime-streaked from working on the AD, but that didn't seem about to stop him. Fire burned in his dark eyes and Ratchet knew, with a sinking feeling, that there was no arguing with him, no matter how small and weak he seemed. He and Ratchet were Bulkhead's only hope.

"I may not be able to protect you from harm," Ratchet warned.

Robin looked moderately offended, and reached into his belt for something. He produced a short white stick, which then folded out into a respectable staff. Pressing an unseen button, he activated an electric charge, which sparked at either end.

"I don't need protection," Robin hissed.

"What about us?," Miko demanded "we care about Bulkhead too,"

"Do you have a way of fighting the Decepticons?," Robin asked then, when Miko failed to answer "then you stay here,"

"Someone has to operate the ground bridge," Ratchet said, in order to pacify Miko "and continue trying to contact the others. We may be in need of help ourselves before long,"

He again looked down at Robin. Optimus would probably never forgive him for taking a human into battle with him. But even Optimus had to know that Robin was no mere human, and that arguing with him was a useless and often disastrous activity. Ratchet had learned that all too well in working with the young human. He might be small, even for his kind, but was every bit as dangerous as a scraplet when provoked.

Robin hadn't been entirely sure his invention would work until he'd pulled it out. He'd been working on it in his excessive amounts of spare time. It wasn't something he would normally design, as the electric shock was enough to kill a human and probably some other species too. He wasn't sure it would do much more than stun a robot. Even if it did that, it would have to be shoved between metal plates to be effective at all. But anything was better than nothing, and Robin wasn't about to let Ratchet go alone.

Ratchet activated the ground bridge and leaned down to let Robin climb up on him. Robin scrambled onto his shoulder and hung on as Ratchet plunged towards the lighted tunnel. They were barely clear of the bridge when it shut down, to prevent Decepticons from using it to invade the virtually unguarded base. Ratchet didn't like leaving the base unmanned, but there was no choice.

The sounds of a not-so-distant firefight reached their ears. Ratchet and Robin looked at one another, then Ratchet started towards the source of the sounds. Around a collection of large brown boulders, they saw that Bulkhead was pinned in the entrance of a cave by a swarm of Decepticons.

Wordlessly, Robin stepped off onto Ratchet's hand. Carefully, but forcefully, Ratchet threw him. Twisting through the air, Robin deployed his grappling hook, which sank into the metal plating of an unsuspecting Decepticon. Ratchet plunged into the battle, firing wildly while he still had the advantage of surprise. The Decepticons were startled by the intrusion, but not totally shocked.

After all, they had to have been expecting company. They knew Autobots took care of their own.

Robin took down the first Decepticon with remarkable ease. Striking the electrified end of the staff against the vulnerable spot at the back of the robot's neck proved very effective. He wasted no time leaping onto the next. His objective was clear in his mind: clear a path for Ratchet. He didn't have time for anything fancy, he didn't even have to make sure his opponent stayed down for long.

He'd never fought alongside Ratchet, and so had to keep one eye on the Autobot to make sure they didn't accidentally get in each other's way (which would end much worse for Robin than Ratchet). Too late, though almost at the same instant, it dawned on them that this had to be an ambush.

It had been too easy to come in behind the Decepticons. About the time they realized it, the air was filled with the sound of screaming fighter planes. They looked up to see a formation of eight jets closing in on them. As they dove in for a strafing run, Ratchet took cover behind some large rocks. Robin, in the middle of the battlefield and almost totally exposed, took the only shelter there was.

He slid underneath a metal plate on a Decepticon's back. Though he had no reason to believe the Decepticons cared about one another all that much, Robin did not expect them to actively fire on one of their own on the off chance that they might be able to hit him. As it turned out, the Decepticons had exactly zero regard for one another, and they cheerfully opened fire on their hapless comrade below.

As the body around him began to jerk and twitch, its metal denting and tearing inward, Robin knew he had to get out, and get out fast. Wriggling and twisting his way back to the surface, Robin found himself hesitating. There was nothing in range to shoot with the grappling hook, nor was there time. But there wasn't really any good option. It was either take the fall, or risk being crushed.

Taking a deep breath, Robin dove off the back of the falling Decepticon, turning in the air and rolling himself into a ball to make himself a more difficult target. Ratchet was too far away to do anything other than watch as Robin hit the ground with what must have been a heavy 'thud', but it was inaudible amidst all the other noise.

Ratchet didn't have time to think about Robin. The fighting was still going on, and it was only him and Bulkhead now, unless by some miracle Robin was somehow still kicking. He made his way to Bulkhead, and grimly they stood back to back, holding their ground because there was no other choice, praying the Decepticons would give up, or that Raff would get the radio working.

It had begun suddenly, and ended just as abruptly with the distinctive sound of the ground bridge activating. The Decepticons turned, taking note of it. A roaring motorcycle engine foretold the arrival of Arcee, who launched herself into the air as a vehicle, but came down an Autobot with guns blazing. She was followed almost immediately by Optimus and Bumblebee.

"Retreat!," screamed out a fighter jet.

The Decepticons wasted no time in clearing out. But the jet who'd given the order noticed a small figure lying on the ground and paused to pick up the still form of Robin. The Autobots noticed, and fired at the Decepticon until it had picked up the boy, and then dared not for fearing of hurting him. Both Arcee and Bumblebee gave chase, but the pursuit was futile and they both knew it.

Arcee was the first to break off, turning back to check on Ratchet and Bulkhead. Bumblebee pursued the Decepticon jet until it was long out of sight, then finally returned, venomously berating himself for being unable to accomplish the impossible task of outracing a fighter jet. He returned to the former battlefield in time to overhear Ratchet doing virtually the same thing.

"I should never have taken him along," Ratchet moaned "he's only human, I should have known... but it's so easy to forget, they seem so strong...," he shook his head miserably.

Arcee picked up the staff Robin had invented which he'd dropped in the fall. She examined it curiously, and poked the electrified end at the body of a Decepticon. Her eyes widened at the sparking which was generated on contact.

"How did he do this?," she wondered aloud, not expecting an answer "something which could kill a robot with one blow, if it struck true,"

"Robin is a warrior," Optimus said, both to Ratchet and Arcee "more than any human on this world, he knew the risks and was prepared for the consequences. To deny him the right to fight would be to deny who and what he is. You could not have stopped him, even had you tried, Ratchet,"


	9. Chapter 9 - A Friend in Need

It was a sad group of Autobots who returned to the base, eyes staring at the ground and spirits low. Ratchet and Bumblebee were helping Bulkhead, who sank down at the first opportunity.

He felt guilty for having called, though there was no logical reason for it. If he hadn't called, then Ratchet and Robin wouldn't have come to his aid, and Robin would be here yet, just fine. He'd had no way of knowing, of course, that the radio was on the fritz, or that Robin would volunteer to join the rescue party, but he felt hot guilt seeping through him just the same. He was not the only one.

Ratchet too felt responsible for the fate that had befallen the young hero. He felt remorse for having allowed Robin to accompany him, though it was unlikely that he and Bulkhead would have been able to stand for long had Robin not taken down a number of Decepticons as well as distracting the planes just by being there. He also felt that he should have been able to somehow save Robin, though when he replayed the event in his head, he could see there was no way it could have gone differently.

Bumblebee, who had least reason to feel regret, felt perhaps more than the others. If it had been him and not Ratchet who'd been at the base, he didn't think he'd have hesitated to bring Robin along. Unlike Ratchet, he had seen the masked wonder fight, had seen the boy hold his own against not one but many Decepticons, each a thousand times his size. Bumblebee knew from past experience that his vehicle form was no match for the speed of a jet, and yet he had given chase anyway and felt very upset that he had been unable to overtake the Decepticon who'd spirited Robin away from them.

Optimus Prime, of course, felt guilt. Optimus was one of those individuals who felt it was his responsibility to save the whole world, and would have felt just as badly had it been one of his own Autobots that had been taken, despite the fact that they truly were soldiers, trained and battle-hardened, ever prepared for the end as any warrior must be.

Arcee didn't feel exactly guilty, but she was very sad, and did regret that she could do nothing to help either Robin or her grieving comrades.

"Do you think he even survived the fall?," she asked of Ratchet.

"I would have said no," Ratchet replied wearily, his voice very low "but I can't think of any reason a Decepticon would pick up a human's body, which leads me to believe he was still alive,"

"Why," Bulkhead asked slowly "would they want him... at all?,"

"Robin knows the location of our base. Aside from which," Optimus looked at the staff Robin had built, which had been deactivated by Arcee, who was still holding it "he knows several ways to kill. They have no way of knowing whether or not his methods are superior to their own,"

"It's not his technology that lets him do it," Ratchet said, shaking his head in some wonder "there's nothing special about that staff by our standards. It's his heart that makes the difference, and they can't build one of those for their army,"

"The dude is fearless," Miko agreed solemnly, hugging herself as though cold "and annoyingly good at everything he does," she swallowed hard, adding quietly "and I've been a jerk to him for it,"

Bumblebee asked a question, which he addressed to Optimus.

"I do not know, Bumblebee," Optimus replied heavily "we have no way of tracking Robin like we do one another, nor does he possess a cell phone such as the children have,"

"But... but you have to find him," Miko's eyes were brimming with tears "he's family now, you have to find him so he can go back home. He's got a world to save,"

"We are not going to give up on our young friend," Optimus assured her gently "and if you have any suggestions on how to locate him, I am willing to listen,"

Miko closed her eyes and shook her head fiercely, refusing to let the tears fall. It wasn't fair to cry in front of the Autobots, who felt badly enough as it was, and it wasn't right to cry before she knew whether Robin was alright or not.

"It'll be okay, Miko," Jack said, putting an arm around her shoulders "the Autobots will find him,"

"Yeah," Raff added encouragingly "he's tough, he'll be fine,"

"Sure," Miko sniffled, but there was no conviction in her voice "I know,"

"He's a ninja," Jack added, doing his best to look cheerful "ninjas can handle anything,"

"Remember how he taught us some escape tricks?," Raff asked "I bet he's already gotten free, and is on his way back right now,"

Miko nodded, and sniffled some more. It was clear that none of the three bought any of what they were selling, but they were trying to make one another feel better, so none of them admitted it.

* * *

The next few days were uncomfortably quiet. Optimus, Bumblebee and Arcee took it in rotations to go out on patrol, one of them always staying behind to scan for Decepticon activity. Bulkhead, for his part, was recovering. Ratchet, when he wasn't checking up on his patient, became virtually obsessed with building the Abyss Device, in spite of the fact that it would be useless if they couldn't get Robin back. It was his way of telling fate that it had better spare Robin's life if it knew what was right.

Nobody, not even Miko, had all that much to say. Robin had only been with them for a short time, but he'd made a tremendous impression on them all, especially the kids. He'd taught them a lot, and not just about self-defense or video games. Unintentionally, he'd taught them all a little more about life, and themselves, and what it meant to be a hero.

He was always ready for whatever life threw his way, throwing himself whole-heartedly into whatever he did, whether it was teaching self-defense, building elaborate electronic devices, going into battle, running through the desert or just playing a game. He seemed just as passionate about building stuff as breaking it, ever eager to try new things and always up for whatever came his way.

He was one of those people who was really easy to get along with. Whatever movie was picked to watch, he'd be quick to say "yeah, sounds cool". He was willing to play the same video games over and over, or try a new one. He'd try just about anything twice, just to make sure his first impression was the right one. If he had any flaws, they were his hyperactivity and hot temper, but he was so aware of both and used them to such advantage that they could hardly be seen as weaknesses.

More than anything, Robin reminded Miko of an Autobot rather than a human being. Fearless and bold, but with a gentler side, a kindness underneath all that shameless bravado. He'd also shown an understanding and empathy for others that Miko simply wasn't capable of.

He'd learned Bumblebee's language, at least enough for simple conversation, in a matter of weeks. Miko and Jack had known Bee for months, and neither of them had a clue what he was saying most of the time, unless his tone and gesturing made it obvious what he meant.

There weren't many in the world, robot or human, who could take Miko down a peg or two. Though Miko would never admit it out loud to anyone, Robin was one of those people. She knew that she would never be able to forgive herself for acting like she had if something happened to Robin. It was easy to be rude to someone when you thought that you'd barely get to know one another anyway, or when you thought they'd live forever.

She tried to think of the last thing she'd said to Robin. She didn't think it had been very nice, whatever it was, and she didn't want those words to be the last she spoke to him.

* * *

The sound of the communications array startled Ratchet. He had been absorbed in his work but, more than that, the call was wholly unexpected because all the Autobots were at the base, and so were the children. It wasn't the frequency Agent Fowler used, nor did the I.D. correspond with any known ally.

By the time Ratchet opened communication, the others had gathered curiously around.

"Identify yourself," he told the caller gruffly.

"_Shove it, Ratchet,"_

The voice of Robin came as such a surprise and relief to all, that they were hard pressed not to all speak at once. His voice was a low growl, which suggested that quiet would be appreciated.

"Robin!," Ratchet exclaimed, somehow managing to do so quietly "where are you?,"

"_Beats me,"_ Robin replied irritably _"I'm in some kind of ship, which is a bit inconvenient as I'd like to get off, but we seem to be airborne at the moment,"_

"Try to figure out where you are," Optimus suggested "so we can get you out,"

"_Yeah... not really an option. However, my gauntlet does have a tracking chip," _he rattled off a code, which Ratchet input to the computer.

A blip appeared on the map, revealing Robin's location.

"Hold on," Optimus said "we're coming to get you,"

"_Easy for you to say,"_ Robin grunted.

His voice sounded terrible. Weak and pained, and even with the bad connection it was plain to all that he was wheezing more than breathing. Without warning, Robin cut radio contact, presumably because he was trying to be very quiet, or perhaps hide the fact that he had a radio at all.

"He'll be alright, won't he?," Miko asked no one in particular.

Bumblebee burred vehemently.

"Bee's right," Arcee said "he's made it this far, now it's our job to bring him home,"

They couldn't help but remember when they first met Robin. Bumblebee had thought he was saving Robin, but it turned out to be the other way around. Then the Autobots had gone to investigate the Decepticon activity and try to take Robin home, and he'd given up his best shot at getting there for Arcee. Time and again, he had defended them without hesitation, even at great cost to himself. This last time could have cost him his life. Might cost him that yet, if the Autobots didn't get him out.

"Arcee, Bumblebee, prepare to ground bridge," Optimus ordered crisply "Ratchet, remain here,"

"Optimus," Bulkhead broke in "I'm good to go. Let me go too,"

Optimus turned a questioning eye towards Ratchet, who shrugged.

"Very well," Optimus said "Autobots, we have a friend to save,"

* * *

For Robin, things seemed to have gone from bad to worse over the last few days. He'd blacked out when he hit the ground, and regained consciousness only to find himself chained in the air about eye level with his interrogator, whom he recognized as Starscream.

His poor scrambled brain found Starscream's chin to be terribly funny looking, so the first thing he did was laugh, which was more of a cough because there were precisely two places on his body that didn't seem to be in pain, and that was because they were numb, and laughter brought feeling to even those places, and that feeling was pain.

"Ah, you're awake. How nice," Starscream hissed.

He leered at Robin, lighted eyes glittering with fiendish thoughts Robin didn't even want to guess at.

"It's not all that nice really," Robin said, finding his voice and tongue at the same time "rather uncomfortable, as you might imagine,"

"Yes, well... it will all be over soon," Starscream assured him "just as soon as I find out what I want to know,"

"Well I'm sorry. I can't make your device work," Robin growled "speaking of... what is it supposed to do anyway?. I mean, I assume your plan wasn't to bring me here and it sure wasn't my idea,"

"You were an unexpected bug," Starscream admitted "the plan was to make a hole in time and bring certain warriors to the future. You know, before they got demolished in the past,"

"So you were trying to time skip and wound up dimension hopping?," Robin laughed again, then coughed "An amateur magician wouldn't make that mistake!,"

"Shut up!," it was at this point that Starscream applied the glowing end of a pointy object to Robin's person, resulting in fiery pain.

Starscream said something about energon's effect on the human nervous system, but Robin neither heard nor processed what was said, absorbed in the world of inner fire the object had created for him. He didn't realize it, but it wrung a scream out of him, at least it did until he ran out of breath.

Eventually, Starscream let up. Trembling and panting, Robin didn't say anything for several moments. When he did finally speak, it wasn't anything Starscream wanted to hear. In fact, it made so little sense that there's hardly any chance at all that anyone would care to hear it.

"On a scale of minus five and a half to plus ten and three quarters, I'd give that a three," Robin gasped.

His consciousness took one look at this statement, promptly packed its bags and went off in search of someone with a slightly less damaged brain to inhabit.

The interesting thing about the conscious mind is that it can take a leave of absence without bringing its sibling, the subconscious, along. So while Robin was somewhat lacking in awareness, he did have several things to say about the matter. None of it meant anything to Starscream and Robin didn't recall any of it when he later awoke. For whatever it may be worth, he did say a name more than once, which at the time wouldn't have had any meaning to him even if someone had told him what he'd said later.

Had anyone from the future of Robin's world been listening, they would have recognized the monicker "Nightwing" almost at once. But they weren't and Robin wouldn't remember it anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

* * *

When Robin did eventually reclaim his consciousness, he woke to an empty chamber. He was still hanging in the air by his arms, but Starscream had gone off to attend to other matters. Questioning an unconscious person is somewhat like trying to play scrabble with a jellyfish. You can technically do it, but it won't get you anything that makes sense.

Robin wasted absolutely no time at all in working his way free of his bonds and climbing his way to the floor. Once there, he found a large (to him) hole in the wall which was stuffed with cables. He didn't know where the passage led, other than out of the room, which was quite good enough for him.

If Starscream had known a little more about Robin than he did, he wouldn't have left the boy unattended, even while unconscious. You see, Robin was not so much trained to avoid capture as to escape from captivity. Evading capture in the first place was good too, but that did no good at all once you were already caught. Knowing how to escape was invaluable at all times.

For those of you who might be wondering why Robin did not, at this time, decide to call on the Autobots, there was a very good reason. This reason was the combination of blow to the head and energon shock had pretty much fried him. He could hardly remember his own name, let alone where he was or how he got there. The thing about superheroes is that they will attempt to protect themselves on pure instinct, knowing even in a daze that concealment is preferable during recovery.

Robin woke up assuming he was in danger, and did something about it basically on impulse. It was a reflex which had saved his life on more than one occasion.

Finding a small dark space to rest in wasn't difficult. After putting some distance between himself and where he'd started, Robin curled up to recover, and to think. His breath was coming in ragged gasps and just about everything hurt. He was sure he must have some broken bones, but the pain was so generalized that it was hard to tell what hurt the most.

Much time passed before he moved. He'd actually dozed off when the harsh blaring of an alarm snapped him into wakefulness. He knew it must be meant for him. This proved a detriment to his recovery plans. At first, the Decepticons simply searched the ship, until one of them got the bright idea of scanning for organic life signs.

Robin wasn't hard to pick out. But catching him was no easy task. Quick and still quite nimble, and with plenty of tiny spaces to fit himself into, Robin was well able to stay one step ahead of the Decepticons. But they kept following him around, trying to get at him and generally not giving him any time at all to gather his thoughts. He had to stay one step ahead of them, and be alert for any means they devised of trying to get at him or flush him out.

After traversing the length and width of the Decepticon ship about three times, Robin came to the conclusion that there was no way off this tub. It was too high up for him to jump and hope to not splatter all over the ground, and there were no escape pods, presumably because the Decepticons themselves served as emergency escape vehicles.

The fact was, Robin was tired. He was hungry, and thirsty and very, very tired. Continued escape became simply more trouble than it was worth. It was only at this point that he finally remembered the Autobots. He'd already hacked into their mainframe several times and gone completely unnoticed, so it wasn't hard to put out a call. Unfortunately, it took so much time that the Decepticons relocated him.

He resigned himself to capture, too tired to do much else.


	10. Chapter 10 - Butterfly

It is, perhaps, relevant to note that though the Autobots acted at once upon receiving Robin's call, for the boy wonder, time seemed to pass ever so much slower than it had beforehand. This was, in part, because he had nothing to do except hang around, quite literally.

This was also because, on his capture, Robin's radio (and consequently his left wrist) was broken. He was then hung back up where he'd started, but this time was not left alone. Though Robin had certainly suffered much worse injuries, the pain was incredibly distracting, especially considering that in his current position there was little else for him to do aside from think about it.

Actually, there was one other thing around to occupy his attention. In addition to Starscream, there was another Decepticon in the room. This one was dark purple, and extremely pointy. If Robin had thought the generic Decepticons were faceless, he realized now that he was wrong. This one had little more than a computer screen for its face.

Unlike all of its comrades, this Decepticon was silent. Utterly and completely devoid of comments. Robin also had the uncanny feeling that the Decepticon was staring at him. It was weird, because the thing had no optics, or none Robin could discern, and yet he felt its penetrating gaze boring into him, staring into his soul without compassion or, indeed, any emotion at all.

Starscream eventually identified his stony companion as Soundwave, a seemingly ironic name as the lithe Decepticon generally made no sound at all, not even the standard clunking and clanking of a casually walking member of the Cybertronian race.

Strangely, Robin was reminded of home. In the most bizarre twist of this entire misadventure, Robin felt as if he were seeing Batman in an alternate reality. Evil and robotic, but distinctly familiar. So similar, that Robin was able to read each movement and gesture of the Decepticon as if it were spoken English (or one of the many other languages he was fluent in).

Soundwave showed no recognition himself, indicating that there was no sidekick for him. This was hardly surprising, considering the Decepticon tendency to undercut one another rather than lend assistance. Their favorite occupation was treachery, or so it seemed to be.

"Where," Starscream hissed, his voice low "is the Autobot base?,"

"You're asking me?," Robin scoffed, which turned out to be more of a croak "I just got to this planet, and didn't have time to buy a road map. A fact I find very irritating, by the way,"

"Still with the jokes?," Starscream huffed, but Robin was looking past him.

Starscream was a blowhard, full of hot air and indignation, but armed with only a pointy electrified stick. Soundwave... now there was someone capable of wielding real power. One to be feared. Not that Robin feared him. Of course not. But alongside Soundwave, Starscream came off as a joke-

These thoughts were interrupted by a fierce prodding with the aforementioned pointy stick. When Robin's thoughts rather shakily recollected themselves and begin to jumble together, they formed an entirely different pattern, though not one that turned out to be in Starscream's favor.

"You know," Robin said, his voice barely a whisper "that's really very dull. It didn't work the first time, I don't see why you think doing it again will help,"

For this, he was poked again, this time for a more extended period of time.

This time however, Starscream was very rudely interrupted by a flash of light behind him, followed by weapon's fire. The Autobots had arrived, opening a ground bridge right inside the room.

"Get the door!," Robin called out, noticing at once the Autobots' tendency to be more concerned with the current situation than a future one.

They moved in to defend Robin, concerning themselves with the present Decepticons, rather than thinking about the door behind them, which could open at any second, admitting a flood of Decepticons who would be drawn by the sound of battle more than any alarm. Soundwave clearly had the same perception, moving to block the door as Optimus turned in answer to Robin's call.

Robin went into action once more, escaping his chains once again, but this time not dropping to the floor, clinging to one chain with his right hand. At the first opportunity, he hopped onto Bumblebee, and from there to Optimus.

"I'll get his attention," Robin hissed "you blast the door,"

Before Optimus could protest, Robin flung himself at Soundwave. Soundwave was the first Decepticon ever to have anticipated this, sliding nimbly to the side and almost evading Robin entirely. But the boy wonder had taken this possibility into account and twisted mid-flight, realigning himself in order to catch Soundwave by the arm. In the seconds that passed, Optimus fired a single shot past Soundwave into the keypad beside the door, effectively breaking it. Now it could only be operated by prying it open or repairing it.

By six seconds, when Soundwave shook Robin off, Optimus was there to catch him as he fell. As one, the Autobots closed ranks and backed towards the ground bridge. And then, so far as the Decepticons were concerned, they disappeared through the lighted tunnel which then closed behind them.

* * *

Back at base, Optimus opened the hand which he'd closed protectively around Robin. Robin was kneeling down and coughing, making no attempt to speak or move other than to occasionally pause to take shuddering breaths. He sort of tipped and leaned against Optimus' partially curled thumb, using it for support as the coughing fit continued.

"Are you alright?," Optimus asked worriedly when the coughing went on unabated.

Robin tried to answer twice, then shook his head and held up a hand to let them know he intended to answer, just as soon as he was finished with what he was doing. Finally he took a sharp breath and managed to stop the coughing.

"I'll be fine," he lied "just learned a valuable lesson about energon and the human body,"

His tone of voice was light, but he made no attempt to sit up, continuing to lean against Optimus, who could feel his frail body shaking uncontrollably. His eyes were half closed and Optimus could hear the soft wheezes that punctuated each intake of breath. Optimus knew that he was lying, but was too kind to call him on it.

"So what happened?," Miko asked, too far below to see Robin all that well "spill,"

"Not much," Robin said too quietly, then cleared his throat and repeated it, adding "just found out that Starscream is a very boring interrogator,"

"Boring?," Ratchet grunted "that's what you're going with?,"

"Yes," Robin replied wearily "anybody got any water?,"

Jack located an unopened bottle of water, which he passed up to Optimus. When Robin stayed put, the others began to suspect that all was not right with him, but none of them were sure and so they said nothing. They were willing to admit that they didn't know Robin all that well and so could not speak for what might be considered "normal" for him given the situation.

"Remember to drink it slow," Miko advised "you don't want to be sick,"

Robin looked down at her, somewhat amused by this. If she had any inkling of how sick he was already, she wouldn't have bothered to say anything. As it was, she maybe thought he was a bit hurt, as Agent Fowler had once been. But Agent Fowler had not been under duress for so long, nor did he have the added tax of being from another dimension, one which it was literally killing him to be away from.

"We should allow Robin time to recover," Optimus said "leave the questions for later,"

Gratitude shone in Robin's eyes as he looked up at Optimus. A look passed between them, and Robin could tell that the Autobot leader knew. For some reason, this was comforting. That he didn't have to go through this alone was a relief.

"Let me stay," he whispered too quietly for anyone other than Optimus to hear.

Optimus understood. He had been meaning to take Robin to the room he'd supposedly been staying in and leave him there. But, vulnerable as he was, Robin didn't feel secure there. Optimus nodded fractionally, and Robin settled into his hand, closing his eyes and letting out a sigh of relief.

Optimus couldn't begin to understand why it was that Robin trusted him to such an extent, but he could accept it. In truth, it came as something of a relief to him as well. He knew Robin was very sick, far sicker than he'd been letting on, and he had been looking for an excuse to keep an eye on the boy but had been unable to find any.

Looking at Robin half asleep in his hand reminded Optimus once again of how very fragile the world that he was trying to protect really was. So small and with so few natural defenses, prone to ailments numbering in the millions at least, not even counting the ease with which they could be injured. Yet humanity and the Earth were surprisingly resilient, capable of bouncing back from things which would destroy a lesser world. Also there was in Robin's eyes a fiercely burning fire, which even now flared brightly in liquid indigo windows to his soul. Determined to fight, to survive, refusing to acknowledge the odds against success, often continuing to exist through sheer power of will.

But despite all that, it was clear that Robin had been living on borrowed time, and that was fast running out for him. Somehow, they had to get him home, and get him there soon. Optimus had already known this, somewhere in the back of his mind, but he hadn't realized how serious the situation was until now.

"Ratchet, continue working on the Abyss Device," Optimus said quietly aside to the medic "and hurry," his gaze flickered meaningfully to Robin, who had already fallen into a fitful sleep "if I or any of the other Autobots may be of assistance, know that the construction device takes precedent over everything aside from an emergency,"

"What is it?," Ratchet asked, equally quiet "what's wrong?,"

"I do not know for certain," Optimus rumbled "but I believe our reality is somehow adversely affecting our young human friend. If he is not returned home swiftly, I fear he may not survive,"

Ratchet nodded his understanding, then indicated the children and other Autobots with his head.

"Do they know?,"

"I do not believe they are aware," Optimus replied softly "and I do not think Robin wishes them to be,"

"Doesn't he trust us yet?," Ratchet huffed irritably, shaking his head.

"It is not about trust," Optimus told him "I think, in his own way, he is attempting to protect us. He fears that, if we know his weakness, we shall try to shield him, and put our own safety aside,"

Ratchet nodded, realizing that this was most believable, especially because it was perfectly true.

"How well he understands us," Ratchet commented "and how little we him,"

Optimus nodded, somewhat sadly. It grieved him that the war with the Decepticons left so little time to get to know their human allies. On the other hand, the intensity of the situation often brought out both the best and worst humanity had to offer. So, in truth, the Autobots probably knew their human friends better than it would immediately appear.

* * *

Some time later, Robin awoke, feeling much stronger than before. It was at this point that his broken wrist was made known to the others as he requested materials for a splint, and then put it on himself, using mostly one hand and occasionally his teeth.

"I could help with that," Jack offered.

"Nah, I got it," Robin said, pausing to cough once or twice before adding "I've done this before,"

This earned him a raised eyebrow, but he didn't offer an explanation and nobody asked. He then finished off the bottle of water and ate the leftovers from the children's earlier lunch, though perhaps inhaled might be the more appropriate word.

He then related his experiences on the Decepticon ship to a fascinated audience. Born into showbiz, Robin knew exactly how to tell a compelling story, toning down things which were exceptionally grim and playing up the more exciting bits, often with lively gesturing (albeit with only one hand).

"You know what they were trying to do?," He asked suddenly, mid-story "in making the AD?. They were trying to rip a hole in time, reach back through the eons and retrieve some dead robots. You know, before they got killed in the past. Which is a really stupid idea by the way," he added this hurriedly after noting a mischievous gleam in Miko's eye.

"Why?," Jack asked, virtually innocent where the complexities of time travel were involved.

"Changing the time line for one," Robin replied "Duh. Also, they're going about it all wrong. Completely, entirely wrong. I mean, there's no similarity at all between a device for time travel and one for dimension travel. They're totally different concepts,"

"If you say so," Jack said.

"But more importantly, if they took somebody who died away before they die-,"

"It could change the outcome of a given battle," Optimus finished for Robin.

"Exactly," Robin said "typically speaking, anyone worth bringing back to life didn't die in vain. So say their death caused a win for the Decepticons. Take them out of the battle-,"

"And the Autobots might win," Raff supplied.

"And possibly change the time line so that the present becomes unrecognizable," Robin went on, enthusiastically "and not necessarily for the better,"

"Oh?," Miko asked "but wouldn't the Autobots getting another win be a good thing?,"

"You'd think that," Robin told her, his voice uncharacteristically gentle "but the truth is, things happen for a reason. Just because something seems bad, doesn't mean it is. In the grand scheme of things, that is. Change one event, even something... very small and apparently insignificant, and you may wind up destroying the very fabric of reality,"

"You sound like you speak from experience," Arcee observed.

Robin sighed and looked down at his damaged wrist, wincing slightly though it was unclear if the pain was from the break or from a memory.

"Sort of," he said finally, his voice quiet "You have to understand, my life hasn't exactly been a bowl of cherries. There are a lot of things... a lot of things.. that I'd want to change. But I've dealt with people who messed with time. And, not only that, I've spent some time with people who seriously know about this kind of stuff. They can paint a pretty harrowing picture,"

"What sort of stuff would you want to change?," Miko asked "I mean, you're... well... cool,"

This got a small smile out of Robin, exactly as Miko had intended. She could almost feel the hurt in his eyes herself, and it just didn't look right knowing Robin as she did, bright and cheerful and endlessly energetic. Weary sorrow did not become him.

"Every hero has their own pain they carry around," Robin answered, shrugging dismissively "their own sorrow and demons. Or so the story goes," he smiled again, somewhat weakly "though I suppose that may not be true in this universe,"

Bumblebee said something, which indicated fairly clearly that he knew exactly what Robin was saying. Miko didn't, not really. She barely knew anything of what the Autobots had suffered through even to get this far. And, though she felt that she had suffered hardship and loss herself from time to time, there was no comparison between what she was and what Robin was.

"Say, for instance," Robin said after thinking a moment "that you had a favorite pet. And it died. Then you found a way to time travel and bring it back to life. Later, it runs out into the road. An oncoming vehicle attempts to swerve to avoid hitting it. The vehicle crashes and driver dies as a result. They would have lived if not for the pet in the road. Maybe they're nobody important, but maybe their children become something they shouldn't because of their death. Maybe an as yet unborn child was destined to save the world somehow, but now they never will,"

"Isn't that called the butterfly effect, or something?," Jack asked.

"I don't know," Robin shrugged "probably. But anyway, it may seem wrong that someone died, but everything works pretty much as it's supposed to. It all happens for a reason, even if you can't see it. Or so I've been told and choose to believe anyway,"

"I guess fate isn't something you argue with," Raff murmured.

"Depends on what you mean by fate," Robin replied quietly.

Nobody understood what that meant, yet he spoke the words with such quiet sincerity that no one felt that they should ask.


	11. Chapter 11 - Final Goodbyes

After his capture by the Decepticons, Robin spent more and more time on his own. Though he did his best to make light of the situation, he couldn't at once shake off the memories of uncertainty and even fear that he'd felt. Though he was quickly recovering from the injuries he'd sustained, Robin continued to weaken, and found it harder and harder to hide it from those around him.

He was almost constantly tired, and at times found it difficult to focus on what he was doing. He was fast running out of time, and he knew it. Even so, he didn't want to be treated any differently from before, had no desire for sympathy or pity. He didn't worry about how fast the clock was running down for him. He simply did his best to get through each day in one piece, feeling that the future could better take care of itself without his assistance.

The only one he continued to spend much time with was Ratchet, though Robin found himself able to do progressively less to assist the Autobot medic in finishing the AD. It got to where he mostly sat with his back against the wall, just keeping Ratchet company with a fairly steady stream of banter. Ratchet pretended to be annoyed, but anyone could tell how fond he was of their constant verbal combat.

Even that began to be broken by Robin falling asleep in the middle of the day. He never slept for long, and seemed plagued by dreams when he did. Ratchet was unsure if this was a typical sleep pattern for Robin, but he suspected that it was not.

It was perhaps fortunate that the children were so busy with either school or hanging out with their own robots. It left the base quiet and, more importantly, kept life as easy as possible for Robin.

"You know," Robin commented one weekend morning "to set this up properly, we have to go back to where I first fell through,"

"I realize that," Ratchet replied.

"And do you also realize that Starscream knows it too?," Robin asked.

"Of course," Ratchet grunted "what's your point?,"

"You will be taking a grave risk," Robin said "one I'm not sure you can afford,"

Ratchet paused his work and looked across the room at Robin, who was steadfastly looking at his bandaged wrist, avoiding Ratchet's gaze at all costs.

"We are going to bring you home," Ratchet said firmly, using a tone of voice that suggested that he was in no mood for argument "doubtless you are needed on your own world,"

"Not like you are needed here," Robin countered softly.

"If you are to survive, you must be returned home," Ratchet told him "and there is none among us who is willing to be responsible for your death,"

Robin seemed to find this funny for some reason. He didn't quite smile or laugh, but it was clear that he felt the compulsion to do both yet was attempting to resist.

"You find that amusing?,"

"No, no," Robin said, finally cracking and laughing a bit before sobering up "it's just... so strange... I travel all the way to an alternate reality, to find that heroes and villains are just the same everywhere. That's funny to me. That a place so different, could be so exactly like the home I left behind,"

"I don't see why that's surprising," Ratchet said "but then, I have lived far longer than you, and have no doubt seen many things which you have not,"

"No doubt," Robin nodded, still evidently amused "how long do Cybertronians live anyway?,"

"By your standards?. A very, very long time," Ratchet replied cryptically.

"Hundreds of years?. Thousands?,"

"I haven't taken the time to figure it out," Ratchet admitted.

"No time for trivial matters, eh?,"

"No," Ratchet shook his head, returning to his work.

"No, hang on," Robin got up, or tried to, and failed.

Gritting his teeth, he tried again and this time succeeded. He walked over to the device and took a close look at the piece Ratchet was working on.

"Now, I noticed that this piece was turned around while the Decepticons were working on it," Robin pointed to a part barely six inches long "it was this way first, so that's how it was when I was sucked in. But then it was turned around like this when I destroyed it,"

"When it tried to pull Arcee in," Ratchet said, understanding.

"Yes," Robin nodded "I expect the way this piece is stuck in changes which end of the device is doing what. So we put it this way," he pulled it out, rotated it and put it back "and I should be pulled into the tunnel and spat out the other side, instead of it trying to pull something in the other end. Because it could easily be a one way tunnel, and that would be bad,"

"Indeed," Ratchet agreed "that would be most unfortunate,"

"And probably extremely messy," Robin said, making a face thinking about it.

The AD was close to being complete, though it lay in several heaps scattered about the base, making it appear as though some bomb had gone off and shattered it. The second of its kind, an experimental device cobbled together with makeshift parts that mostly didn't quite fit together, causing it to look as though some drunken fool had been playing with a child's modeling kit.

It would have been laughable in design and appearance, had the situation been less serious.

"Careful!," Robin called the warning almost too late.

Bulkhead had driven into the base, almost running over a collection of flat metal strips, which would all too easily crack beneath the weight of his tires. His brakes squealed and he half-turned, almost running into a wall before coming to a lurching halt, opening the side door at the same time and thus releasing Miko, who tumbled out.

"Whoa," Miko said, getting to her feet as Bulkhead transformed behind her "that was close. Um... why did we do that again?,"

"Because those parts are very delicate," Ratchet grumped "and almost irreplaceable,"

Robin knelt beside the pieces to make sure they hadn't been disturbed, then gave Ratchet a thumb's up.

"Nice breaks," he told Bulkhead, rapping his knuckles against the Autobot's foot "however, what's say we put the fragile things over there, away from the door?,"

"Ah, ah!. Don't touch," Ratchet yelped "they're fragile,"

"Yes, I know," Robin told him "I can be careful,"

"You can," Ratchet growled, looking dubiously at Miko, who had moved in to help.

"What?. I'm careful," Miko said, slightly offended.

"Just," Ratchet got his temper under control and finished the sentence much more gently than he'd started it "let Robin do it, he knows how to handle this equipment,"

The pieces were almost as long as Robin was tall, but nevertheless were very light. Ratchet was just as glad that he wasn't handling them. It would be easy enough for Robin to break them, let alone a huge robot ill-designed for the delicate and sensitive task of picking up the pieces and moving them.

"What makes those things so important anyway?," Miko asked.

"They're only the conduits which carry the power from one place to another," Robin tossed over his shoulder, carefully hauling the objects one at a time to a more secure location "nothing too important,"

Ratchet snorted, but refrained from comment.

"They don't look like much," Miko said.

"That would be because they're made out of spit and fiberglass," Robin told her.

"Fiberglass?," Ratchet protested "they most certainly are not,"

"Sure they are," Robin retorted "fiberglass is basically plastic, bits of glass and assorted other stuff, right?. Well that's precisely what these are made out of,"

"To use the technical term," Miko said, an eyebrow raised.

"Very technical," Robin agreed, grinning as he set down the first strip and turned to go for another.

"So, you fight like a ninja, build super complex machines, speak a gazillion different languages, do advanced gymnastics and can perform a Houdini combined with Invisible Man at will," Miko said "is there anything you can't do?,"

Robin paused thoughtfully after hefting the conduit strip onto his shoulder. He tilted his head slightly as if asking the ceiling an important question. He looked deeply focused. Then his expression cleared.

"I can't cook Italian food," he said brightly, flashing a cheerful smile.

"Italian food?. Like... you can cook other stuff?," Miko was flabbergast.

"If pressed," Robin replied "don't get me wrong. Cooking is an art, one I have not at all mastered. So, while I can make things which are edible, that's generally as far as it goes,"

"What about music?. Can you play guitar?,"

"Right at this very moment?. No," Robin said, then added after a moment "because I don't have one on me at the moment. I also cannot sing soprano or bass, so don't ask me to. Actually, on second thought, it's not so much that I can't as that you really, really don't want me to try,"

Miko was inclined to think that Robin was either exaggerating or outright lying about his musical talents but, considering everything else he could do, she realized it would not be at all surprising if he were capable of just about anything, carrying a tune included.

Once the conduit strips were shuttled to safety, Robin sank down against the wall with a weary sigh. Miko, who had been waiting for him to finish, handed him her guitar.

"Prove you can play this, then I'll believe it," she said.

Robin looked at the sleek electric guitar, examining it carefully, giving a quick investigative strum and then a second one just for good measure, listening to the sound it produced.

"Alright," he said, though it was unclear whether he was accepting the challenge or approving of the noise which came from the instrument.

Jack, Arcee, Raff and Bumblebee arrived in time for the brief concert, where Robin played a slow tune, followed by a fast-paced guitar solo from a song none of them knew, yet assumed he had not made up himself (though this was entirely possible). Robin then returned the guitar.

"Now let's hear you do it," he challenged.

The noise Miko produced was significantly less musical than what Robin had, but she seemed pleased with it and everyone clapped politely anyway.

"I'm almost done here," Ratchet said when she'd finished playing "someone should let Optimus know we're about ready to move out with this thing,"

"Can we come too?," Miko asked excitedly.

"I think not," Ratchet answered "Decepticons have been spotted where we're going, and frequently. If they realize what we have or what we are attempting to do, we may have a fight on our hands,"

"Aww...," Miko deflated, then made a grumpy face "I wanted to see the AD work,"

"No you don't," Robin told her "believe me, the abyss is way overrated,"

A few minutes later, Optimus arrived. Robin had joined Ratchet and they were huddled around a piece of equipment that looked like a glorified metal box, with a hideous collection of wires spewing from the top and falling about it like the branches of a willow tree.

"We're almost ready, Optimus," Ratchet said without looking up, passing a small component to Robin, who took it gingerly and disappeared inside the box "I recommend we take everything in a single trip, to reduce risk to ourselves as well as the AD,"

"Everybody gets to carry something," Robin's voice came out of the box slightly muffled.

"Yes...," Ratchet grunted, then went on "however, you Optimus, will have to carry the largest and heaviest pieces,"

"Arcee ought to ride with him," Robin's voice came again "that way he can carry the fragile stuff too,"

"Good idea," Ratchet grudgingly admitted "which will leave Bumblebee and Bulkhead with all the odds and ends to everything,"

"Odds and ends are all we've got," Robin commented dryly, then added as he was climbing out of the box "although, some of this stuff is more odd than the rest. Like this bit here,"

The thing he pointed out was an unholy wedding of a tumble dryer, a car's engine, several laptop computers, some jumper cables, and "assorted other stuff".

"Guess we should say our goodbyes now, in case there isn't time later," Arcee suggested.

"I think everybody's said whatever they need to already," Robin told her "but sure,"

Not surprisingly, everyone had something left they wanted to say to their new friend. They'd all learned a lot from him and, in a way, he'd confirmed that what they were doing was right (as if they didn't already know), and that they really weren't alone. There was evil everywhere. And wherever there was evil, there were also heroes.

"Right," Robin said when they'd finished their goodbyes "well, it's been a real experience. And not even an entirely bad one at that. But let's get this show on the road, before anybody gets too sappy,"

This had, of course, already happened, but Robin's point was made. It took only a few minutes to load up and head out, leaving the base in the hands of the children alone.

"I'm gonna miss that jerk," Miko said after the caravan had disappeared from sight.

"We're all going to miss him," Jack replied quietly.


	12. Chapter 12 - No Arguing with Fate

Setting the AD up proved to be almost as big a challenge as building the thing in the first place. It didn't help any that the schematics Robin had originally copied were destroyed along with his radio. There was a copy on the base computer, but that they couldn't bring with them and so assembly had to be accomplished entirely from memory.

Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Arcee and Optimus felt somewhat useless, as the device was completely alien to them. They mostly took it in turns to keep an eye out for Decepticons and follow instructions on putting the pieces together in order to hurry the process along.

This produced certain interesting scenarios. Robin and Ratchet were accustomed to working side by side, but to speed things up they worked on separate parts of the device with different partners. Ratchet once called on Bulkhead to squeeze into a small space, while Robin requested Arcee to lift something which proved to be twice her size.

Sometimes the work was halted while Ratchet and Robin scrapped over who was right about how a certain piece fit in or if it was relevant at all. On more than one occasion, this resulted in the assistants standing perfectly still, holding an object in a somewhat precarious position, while Ratchet and Robin debated the place the item was supposed to go. There was also some disagreement on what order things had to be put together in order for the device to work.

The conflict made the others nervous, but Ratchet and Robin were by now used to disagreeing and sometimes having active arguments. They knew that it was better in the end, as they would inevitably eventually agree on what needed to be done. Fewer mistakes had been made as a result of their somewhat unorthodox strategy than might otherwise have been.

The AD was no more than halfway erected when the last reserves of Robin's strength abandoned him. He made no drama about it, simply sitting down abruptly and drawing his knees up to rest his elbows on them and placing his forehead on his arms. About this no one made any comment, though the Autobots exchanged glances with one another, even those uninformed sensing a new urgency in the air.

They had all known, on some level, that all was not well with their visitor from another realm, they just hadn't admitted it to themselves. But there was no denying that Robin had grown paler over time, and it had been evident for some time that his energy levels were dropping rapidly from one day to the next.

"There's time," Robin assured Bumblebee quietly when he asked if the boy would be alright.

He wasn't sure that this statement was entirely true. Even now, he felt worse than he was willing to show. But saying so would change nothing, the Autobots were already doing everything they possibly could as fast as they possibly could, and he knew it.

The device lacked the supports which held the original up, and the metal doughnut was going to be laid on its side as it had been when Knockout attempted to pull Arcee through it. If all went well, Robin would be pulled into the abyss and spat out back in his home reality.

Such a trip was, of course, not unprecedented, but that didn't make the variables any less complex or the statistic probability that it would actually work any less daunting. The AD was very nearly complete when Robin suddenly raised his head and tilted it to the side, looking up and over his shoulder.

"What is it?," Arcee asked him, the first to notice his expression.

Robin's eyes narrowed and he seemed to frown at nothing in particular.

"We're not alone," he answered her quietly.

"What?," Bulkhead looked up and scanned the boulders Robin had been looking at "I don't see anything,"

"That's because there's nothing to see," Robin said "they're behind the rocks, but they're there,"

"Decepticons?," Arcee guessed.

"Probably," Robin told her "waiting for us to finish putting the device together,"

"Little do they know that this isn't at all what they were going for," Ratchet commented.

"That's worse," Robin said.

"On that note, we're almost ready," Ratchet said "but it will take at least sixty seconds for the device to power up,"

"Then we shall hold our ground for that long," Optimus told them.

This was all well and good to say, but the AD was out in the open, as it had to be in order for it to work properly. They all knew that a single shot would be all it would take to kill Robin, and the Decepticons had plenty of reason. The Autobots could not effectively close around him, or else they might find themselves dragged into the abyss along with him. The danger was extreme.

Despite that, it was time and they all knew it. There was no turning back, there would be no second chance. It was now or never. Robin got up and managed to position himself in front of the device and Ratchet turned it on.

The air resonated with the electric thrum of the Abyss Device. Deep bass sounds vibrated the ground they stood on. A swirling blue-black speck emerged at the center of the metal doughnut, slowly spreading to fill the space, depthless itself, yet somehow infinite. Flickering tongues of white flame began to form around the inner ring of the device, lashing out at first lethargically, gaining energy as the machine built up to its peak.

It was then that the Decepticons attacked. Robin forced himself to keep his eyes on the abyss before him, knowing there was nothing he could do to help now, yet feeling compelled to do something.

The air around him crackled with energy from the device as well as weapon's fire. He broke and looked over his shoulder. The Autobots were doing their best to provide a living shield, but the Decepticons were attempting to surround them, an advantage they could not be allowed to have.

Abruptly, Bumblebee left the formation. He knelt down and basically wrapped himself around the human. This was done none too soon as a blast struck his shoulder a glancing blow, a shot which would have killed Robin.

"Get back," Robin protested "you want to get pulled through too?,"

_{We have come too far for you to die now}_ came the static reply.

It was the first time Robin had understood Bumblebee clearly, without benefit of gestures.

"Bee, I have no idea what the abyss may do to you. It could kill you," Robin told him.

_{I know}_ Bumblebee replied gently.

No sooner had he said this than the abyss reached out and began to drag them both into the gaping maw of infinity, which stretched before them like a black tide, a living tunnel twisting its way between two worlds which should never meet.

The world was reduced to a sea of blackness, featureless darkness enveloping all and draining all light from every possible source. For Robin, the most critical difference was a low mechanical wailing which he couldn't identify at first.

He eventually realized that the source of the sound had to be Bumblebee. But he found himself unable to speak, and so could not ask if Bumblebee was alright. The sound reverberated through the expanse of nothing. Or was it everything?. Maybe it wasn't dark. Maybe there was too much going by too fast to actually process. Robin didn't know, nor did he much care.

He was once again falling, with only a hopeful idea of what would be on the other side, assuming the tumble in and of itself failed to kill him. Fear had him in its clutches for perhaps the first time. Real fear, that Bumblebee would not survive the journey.

And, even beyond that, Robin knew with a sinking feeling that more danger lay ahead even should Bumblebee survive. Robin no longer had the schematics for the Abyss Device, those had been crushed along with his radio and wrist when he was captured by Starscream.

Even if they made it to the other side, they would have no way of reconstructing the device, meaning that there was no way to send Bumblebee home. Which meant that the brave Autobot would surely die, as Robin had been bound to.

It was almost as thought fate itself was demanding appeasement for having been trifled with. For the universes had been forced out of balance thanks to Robin's unscheduled trip, forever altering the course of his life, changing the very fabric of what made up time and space. It was a wrong which might be impossible to make right without someone paying the price. And it seemed that, for his courage, Bumblebee would pay with his life.

But such was not to be the case. A hand reached into the abyss and caught hold of Bumblebee, dragging him back, away from the darkness. Robin knew that Optimus had come for his soldier, and would do whatever he had to in order to keep Bumblebee on the proper side of the abyss.

He was right. Optimus had caught hold of Bumblebee's hand with both of his own, and Bulkhead and a hold on the Autobot leader. Arcee alone was laying down cover fire, and Ratchet was standing poised over the control panel of the AD, his hands trembling with the desire to switch it off combined with the knowledge that he must not do that too soon, lest Robin be prevented from reaching the other side.

"Just hold, a little bit longer," Ratchet murmured.

Had anyone been able, they would have retorted "easy for you to say". But Optimus and Bulkhead were preoccupied with hauling Bumblebee out of the abyss, inch by agonizing inch, and Arcee was busy firing in all directions, hopelessly outmatched on her own.

Then, all of a sudden, Ratchet turned off the device. Bumblebee fell to the ground with a heavy thud, rolling onto his back and engaging his weapons. Bulkhead turned towards the Decepticons, but Optimus paused, looking on the AD with a mixture of fascination and contempt.

In one shot, he destroyed the thing. He had no further use of it, and could not allow it to fall into Decepticon hands. He knew that the original schematics had been destroyed with the first device, and so the Decepticons had no real way of rebuilding, unless they started again from scratch. They could never be permitted to perfect the device.

As Robin had said, altering the time line was too dangerous, whatever the intent of doing so might be.

"Autobots, return to base," Optimus ordered.

They wasted no time in retreating from the flaming remains of the Abyss Device, ignoring the frustrated cry of Starscream as he realized that his objective was, now and forever, beyond his reach.

* * *

It was hard to feel triumphant, not knowing if they had truly achieved their goal. Ratchet was not at all certain that the device had worked as intended.

"Do you think the kid made it?," Bulkhead asked as the ground bridge was fired up to bring them home.

"It was an experimental device," Ratchet grunted "which we rebuilt to the best of our ability,"

"If anyone could make it work," Optimus said "you and Robin could. We may never know what happened to our young friend, but I choose to believe that he has gone home,"

"Let's not tell Jack, Miko and Raff," Arcee suggested "just say he's gone through it,"

"Agreed," Optimus nodded thoughtfully "there is no reason to worry them. And," he sighed heavily after a moment "Robin would not wish them to feel sorrow on his behalf,"

Nobody could argue with this statement, and so all merely nodded silently, and did their best to put on victorious smiles as they went through the ground bridge. They said that all had gone according to plan, and that Robin had successfully taken the journey through the abyss. They did not mention their misgivings about whether he had made it out the other side.

Bumblebee was unusually subdued, partially because he was so badly damaged from having defended Robin, but also because the boy had been his friend. He had refused to let himself think about how the device was a motley collection of used kitchen appliances and damaged electrical equipment, or that its intended function and the use to which it had been put were two completely different things. He had forced himself to believe with every part of him that the device _would_ work, that Robin _would_ be safe.

But what if he had been wrong?. What if Robin was now dead, his body scattered like dust in the wind?. Or what if he'd been simply sent to yet another reality, where he would die for missing his own?. Bumblebee knew he would never get to find out. In a strange way, he almost wished that he'd been whisked through the device with Robin, so that he would know the boy was safe.

Of course, the truth was, he wasn't at all certain he could have survived the trip. Even as it was, he was badly damaged, his energon reserves virtually depleted, and pain accompanied every movement. It would fade in time, but he was lucky to have survived.

He would never entirely put aside the question of whether or not Robin had been so lucky, but he knew that, in time, perhaps much time, he would be able to go on without the question at the forefront of his mind. There were many such questions in his mind, many comrades whom he would probably never see again, whose fates he would likely never discover. A small piece of him was consumed with the question of whether those comrades had lived or died, and now there was a special place in his mind reserved for Robin as well.

He could live with that. He had no other alternative.


	13. Chapter 13 - Home

The first thought most people have upon beginning to fall is something very much like "AAAHHH!. Oh no, no, no!. AAHHHH!". This, of course, is not what occurred to Robin. As a superhero, it is somewhat doubtful that he was actually aware that screaming could be considered an appropriate response to falling to your death.

To Robin's mind, falling wasn't an entirely untenable situation. Where some might consider free fall to end in a virtually guaranteed splat, this was not at all what came to Robin's mind. Trained almost from birth to trapeze work, he was always ready and able to take advantage of anything that might halt his progress towards the ground. A window sill, a clothes line, a telephone pole. He almost expected something to appear on demand, even if he couldn't see anything to catch himself with.

No, what was going through Robin's mind at the time that he was spat out of the abyss and realized he was several stories up supported by nothing but a flimsy cushion of air was that this was all looking very familiar, and not just the falling part.

Time is a very strange thing, a thing which we very rarely think about, save for thinking that we do not have enough of it. Robin, like most people, had never considered that time felt like anything, in much the same way that the majority of us don't think about our air conditioners making a sound (unless we have an exceptionally noisy one), or our eating utensils having a flavor, or dust in the air having a particular smell. But time does have a feel to it, and Robin was about to fully realize this.

Actually, among his countless other talents and abilities, Robin had always been exceptionally aware of time. Without checking his watch, he had always been able to guess, almost to the minute, exactly what time it was. This was particularly remarkable when he traveled to different timezones, as he seamlessly adjusted to the different time and was thus able to guess not only his home time, but the time wherever he was as well. Not just the time of day, but the precise day and month in the year, which was handy if he found himself captured with no way to tell time other than in his own head, which is a problem which frequently plagues superheroes.

So it should come as no great surprise that he was immediately and most uncomfortably aware that something was dreadfully amiss. It bothered him so much that he almost forgot that he was actually in the process of falling to his death, assuming nothing was done to prevent that catastrophe.

It reminded him of the sensation he'd had the first time he fell through the abyss and found himself in the wrong universe. As if there was something terribly, lethally wrong. It wasn't exactly like that, he finally decided, but unsettlingly similar.

In fact, he felt considerably better than he had since before his first trip through the abyss, in spite of the fact that the injuries he'd sustained in that world did not magically heal. The slow ebbing of his life force or whatever had stopped, and been almost instantaneously reversed. He wasn't sure if that impression was true, as he hadn't tried to stand up because standing up is fully impossible while hurtling through the air. You can assume the position of standing, but that won't really be the same thing at all. Rather like a picture of someone holding a cat is not at all the same as actually holding a cat yourself.

But something was... not exactly wrong... but... different. Really, unnervingly different.

Remembering his grappling hook, Robin pulled it out, took aim, and fired at the nearest place which the hook could latch onto. His fall was brought to an abrupt, and rather painful, halt. He had held the grappler with both hands, forgetting his healing wrist. Yelping in pain, he forgot another very important thing. That he was swinging towards a wall. This he bounced off of, which stunned him so that he let go of the grappler and fell the last several feet to the ground. Or, rather, the roof of a car.

He lay on his back, panting and looking up at the dark and clouded sky, which was just beginning to turn gray as the light of dawn spilled over the edge of the horizon. Robin looked around, taking in the dark and nearly empty street, which did nothing to restore his confidence in the new reality he was inhabiting. There was something... he finally hit on it.

Everything was exactly the same as when he'd left. Every car was parked in the same place on the street, but more than that... everything was just the same. The temperature, the wind, the sky, all of it. He didn't understand how exactly, but somehow he had been returned to the exact point in time he'd left. For him, weeks, months even, had gone by. But the world he'd left behind had seemingly halted, waiting for him to come back, silent and dark.

Looking up higher, he noticed several concerned faces peering down at him from the great height of a rooftop. THE rooftop. The one he'd fallen off at the start of all this. For a moment, Robin wondered if he'd hit his head on the way down, and imagined the whole thing.

The splint on his left wrist told a very different story. Perhaps his other injuries could have been gotten from the fall, but he certainly couldn't have splinted a wrist while falling, nor could his cape have simply disappeared along with his explosive birdarangs. Feeling in his utility belt, his right hand found the electric staff he'd used against the Decepticons.

It _had_ happened, all of it. And yet, somehow, not a moment had passed here. How does one unlive several weeks of their life, he wondered vaguely. His time sense was making him feel a bit seasick, as though the world was a boat and time was a violent and ever-changing ocean.

He rolled onto his stomach, and emptied its contents onto the ground. That made him feel better. His head started to feel a little clearer, and his mind quit reeling at the all too apparent lack of change that had taken place in his absence.

"Are you alright?," Miss Martian had flown down at once, and it was clear the others were following.

"Yeah," Robin said, sitting up, still on the roof of the car "I'm good,"

"What happened to your hand?," Kid Flash, arriving and taking in the scene in a split second, asked.

"Oh, that. Nothing much," Robin said, sighing wearily.

"Uh, Rob... care to fill us in?,"

"Huh?. Oh sure," Robin said, looking around and noticing that the rest of the Team had arrived "now, to really get this, I'll have to begin at the beginning,"

"Beginning?," Kid Flash demanded "you fell off the roof thirty seconds ago!,"

"To you maybe," Robin replied neutrally "but for me, it's been longer. A lot longer,"

* * *

No one was sure they believed Robin's story, but they couldn't deny that _something_ had happened to him. An examination of his wounds revealed that they were all healing, some were close to a month old. The staff he'd built was made of materials that not even the most avid space traveling members of the Justice League had seen before.

There were several theories as to why time had stood still in this universe while Robin was in the other, or why the other universe had begun to kill him, but the reigning theory was this:

The way the Abyss Device had transported Robin from universe A to universe B had thrown his home universe into a sort of destabilization. He had been ripped from it in such a way that it simply ceased to function. When time stopped in his own universe, Robin began to die.

As soon as normal time was restored, so too was Robin's health.

Many members of the Justice League held that more than Robin's life may have been in danger. If he had died, so too would his world because a piece of it would forever be missing, like the metal spring which connects a battery to a flashlight. It was even theorized that the universe Robin had invaded would have started to die as well, having an alien element violently shoved into it.

Robin, for his part, was simply glad that the whole thing was over.

But, as he'd said, it had not been an entirely awful experience. He would miss his friends and, in a strange way, their universe. The things which he had learned there, he would remember for a lifetime. His experiences would assist in countless missions, often in ways so subtle that he would not even notice. In fact, a change had been made inside him, in the short time he'd been gone.

He didn't notice it, but the rest of the Team did.

His time away from home had aged him, in more ways than one. He had matured somewhat, left much of his childlike ways behind him. He had grown more distant, more thoughtful. And, strangely, more reflective. Robin was growing up, and the Team wouldn't have noticed if he'd done it alongside them. But to them, mere seconds had gone by, where Robin had lived perhaps months.

Aqualad had always seen Robin's potential as the Team's leader, he had always known that a leadership role was in the boy wonder's future. But now it was all the more clear. Even the others had begun to see it, though they had only realized it on a subconscious level.

Robin's injuries healed in time, though it was awhile before the vague feeling of seasickness left him. In fact, it wasn't until real time caught up with where he'd thought it should be when he came back that he felt at ease once more. Though not completely. Something in him had changed on a fundamental level, and he knew it. He would always be... well... out of time.

But that was okay, he could live with that. After all, he had no other alternative.

And so for the Team, and for the Autobots, life went on in the way it always had, with another adventure just around the bend. And they would have had it no other way.

* * *

THE END

* * *

_**A/N: I'd like to thank all of you for reading (and reviewing, for those of you that did). It was my joy to write and post, and hopefully your joy to read. See you next time, you've been a great audience. Thank you kindly, and good night everybody.**_


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